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STORIES e/" HELLAS 



STORIES ^/HELLAS 



By 



CORINNE SPICKELMIRE 



INDIANAPOLIS 

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright 1911 
The Bobbs-Merrill Company 



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PRESS OF 

BRAUNWORTH & CO. 

BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



©CI.A297668 



CONTENTS 

THE TRIBAL AGE 

PAGE 

A Land Without a People or a Name ... 5 

A People and a Name 6 

The Coming of the Hellenes 9 

The Tribal Age 12 

How Lovely Hellas Helped 15 

WANDERING BARDS OR POETS AND SOME OF THE 
SONGS THEY SANG 

The Wandering Bards or Poets 21 

The Creation of the Earth 24 

Battle Between Zeus and Typhus .... 26 

The Coming of the Immortals 29 

The War Between the Gods and Titans . . . 33 

The Story of Prometheus 37 

Pandora 42 

The Flood 45 

Perseus 48 

The Adventures of Theseus 56 

Heracles 66 

A Wedding 77 

Awarding the Golden Prize of Beauty ... 82 

Achilles 85 

The Tale of the Wooden Horse 94 

The Adventure of Odysseus in the Land of the 

Cyclops 97 

THE HEROIC OR HOMERIC AGE 

The Divine Homer Ill 

The Women of Hellas 114 



COISITENTS— Continued 

AN INTERLUDE OF INTERESTING STORIES 

PAGE 

The Hellenes' Idea of Earth . . . . , 123 

How the Poets Made the Religion of Hellas . . 126 

Zeus and His Wonderful Company .... 130 

The Divine Agora 143 

A Sacrifice at a Temple 146 

The Great Olympic Games 151 

Oracles 157 

The City- States 160 

Athens and Solon 165 

Sparta and Lycurgus 169 

THE GREAT PERSIAN WARS 

A Great National Danger . . . . . .179 

Miltiades at Marathon 183 

The Eloquence of Themistocles 188 

Leonidas at Thermopyl^ 191 

The Burning of Athens 195 

The Flight of Xerxes 200 

THE GOLDEN AGE 

A Prosperous Era 207 

A Typical Greek House 210 

Agoras-Colonnades-Gymnasia 21^ 

The Greek Maid 219 

The Boy of the Age 226 

A Dinner- Party of Athens 230 

SOME GREAT ATHENIANS 

Statesmen and Orators 243 

Phidias 248 

Socrates 252 

THE PASSING OF THE GOLDEN AGE 
Alexander the Great .261 



STORIES o/'HELLAS 



INTRODUCTION 



GREECE 



GREECE IS a sunny king'dom of Southern 
Europe that extends into the blue waves and 
the white caps of the Ionian and Aegean seas. 
Rocky walls, streams, and bays wrinkle the 
peninsula into picturesque valleys, the glories 
and beauties of which sparkle and change with 
the glowing tints of the sky. 

Greece is not a great nation to-Hay but is 
splendid with the; classic ruins of what she 
once was and we love her for her ancient 
splendor. In the springtime of civilization 
Greece was called Hellas and it was Hellas 
that first gave to the world a rich legacy of 
freedom, art, philosophy and literature. 

I 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

This book of stories will open the gates to 
lovely flower-jeweled Hellas, a realm of poesy, 
legend and history and of marbled works of 
beauty. Come, children, let us enter therein 
and sojourn awhile in Hellas while her pagan 
poets sing us their songs of gods and goddesses 
who dwelt in star-palaces and rode betwixt 
heaven and earth in clouds or in dazzling 
chariots. What glad golden days we shall have 
wandering through shadowy grottoes or danc- 
ing with nymphs to the pipes o' Pan as he 
fares over the windy headlands ! 



THE TRIBAL AGE 



A LAND WITHOUT A PEOPLE 
OR A NAME 

LONG ago when the earth was young, aBout 
twenty centuries before the blessed Christ 
Child came into this world of ours, the sunny 
little land we now call Greece had no people 
living on it. And it had no name in all the 
world. How strange — a land without a peo- 
ple or a name! 

The sea-waters, blue as violets, laughed and 
rippled about its shores. But there were no 
red-cheeked, bright-eyed children tumbling 
on its sands, no merry barefoot children wad- 
ing in its shallow pools. There were no ships 
sailing on its waters, nor were there any cities 
by the sea. Snow-capped mountains and 
rugged hills stood like grim, silent sentinels, 

5 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

while lions and wild boars roared and roamed 
through forests of laurel, palm and cypress. 
Birds sang and flitted among the trees. Flow- 
ers bloomed and tall grasses waved in the 
breeezes. The sun shone and the brilliant blue 
sky was over it all. 

But man was not there to see or to hear. 
How wild and lonely it must have been! 

A PEOPLE AND A NAME 

ONE Hay men, women and children came 
into this sunny land. And a wild, strange race 
they were. There were deep-throated, deep- 
chested warriors armed with pikes, and bows 
and arrows and clad in skins of wild beasts. 
They were strong and knew no fear. There 
were herdsmen too, who came driving their 
flocks of sheep, goats, swine and cattle, and the 
sweet wild notes of their rude pipes awoke 

6 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

strange echoes among the hills. Tanned 
brawny women jolted along in clumsy two- 
wheeled ox-carts with their cooing babes and 
prattling children by their sides. 

How glad and happy those people were 
when they saw this smiling land stretching out 
before them and bidding them welcome ! How 
glad the streams and birds and flowers were to 
hear the play and prattle of little children! 
The snow-capped mountains and rugged hills 
rejoiced to hear the tramp of men and war- 
riors, while at the very sight of bows and 
arrows, lions and wild boars slunk deeper into 
the forests. 

Those wild strange people were Pelasgians. 
They belonged to the great Aryan race, and 
had come from the plains and mountains be- 
yond the Caspian Sea. Some poets and schol- 
ars say they named their new-found land Pe- 
lasgia. 

7 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

The Pelasgians had come into the land from 
the north, and as the years went by they sepa- 
rated into tribes, each governed by a chief, and 
slowly made their way east, west, and south 
until they overspread the entire lovely country, 
finding plenty of work to do as they went over 
the land. They were busy building queer vil- 
lages that were mere groups of little round 
huts, made of clay and brush with reed or 
grass roofs. Around the villages they put 
high rough walls to protect themselves from 
any fierce, wandering tribes who might hap- 
pen to come their way. 

With sharp sticks for plows, they made 
their simple gardens in the narrow valleys and ' 
raised wheat, barley, flax, onions, peas and 
beans. The herdsmen tended their flocks and 
herds on the mountain sides and in the narrow 
valleys. At sunset they drove them up the 
steep slopes and within the walled towns to 

8 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

save them from prowling beasts and robbers. 
You see, the flesh and milk of those herds were 
the chief food and wealth of the Pelasgians. 

Those simple folk knew nothing of our God. 
They thought the golden sunlight was a god, 
and they worshipped everything in nature. 
But they gave no name to any god, and built 
no temples of no images. The snow-capped 
mountains were their altars and the sunlit for- 
ests were their temples. 

THE COMING OF THE HELLENES 

THE Pelasgians were not to hold their lovely 
land in peace. There came a time when they 
were glad they had walled towns, when their 
warriors used pikes and bows and arrows. 

One day whole tribes of people called Hel- 
lenes, came into Pelasgia from the north. 
They, too, belonged to the great Aryan race, 

9 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and their ancestors had lived among the plains 
and mountains of Asia. But those Hellenes 
had long lived in Europe. 

Over the mountains they came, down 
through the fair Vale of Tempe, making war 
upon the Pelasgians. How brave and strong 
and fearless they must have been! 

We can easily fancy that the Pelasgians 
fought hard and long for their homes and their 
lands. Hills and vales echoed with the din 
and noise of battle. Slowly but surely the 
strong new tribes conquered the Pelasgians, 
and took their walled towns and their lands. 
Then the Pelasgians made friends with the 
conquering Hellenes, united with them and 
formed one people — the Hellenes or old 
Greeks so noted in song, legend and history. 
They named the country Hellas, a name it 
kept for centuries and centuries. In our 
stories we shall call it both Hellas and Greece 

10 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and the people both Hellenes and Greeks. 

Glad and happy years now followed in Hel- 
las. The fierce warfare between the Hellenes 
and Pelasgians was over, and all were busy 
and helpful. Hills and vales once more echoed 
with the sweet notes of shepherd's pipes and 
the shouts and play of children. The hus- 
bandmen planted their rude gardens of grain 
and vegetables while the women and maidens 
laughed and chattered in their queer way as 
they fashioned their rough garments or cooked 
and served their coarse, plain food. 

Like great untaught children, these early 
people were full of the mere joy of living, and 
wondered at all the glad sights and sounds 
round about them. They loved the bees and 
the birds, and the woods, streams, flowers, and 
blue sky. They thought spirits must dwell in 
such lovely things and in the sun, moon, stars 
and mountains. And those simple Hellenes, 

II 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

like the Pelasgians, worshipped all things in 
nature and offered their prayers and their sac- 
rifices out in the sunlit forests and upon the 
snow-capped mountains. 

How wild, primitive and barbarous were 
all life and thought in that gay, gladsome 
land! But that selfsame Hellas was destined 
to be the birthplace of a freedom and culture 
that have been the wonder of ages. 

THE TRIBAL AGE 

FOR centuries the Hellenes, like the Pelas- 
gians, lived in tribes each governed by a chief, 
and they owned no lands, but moved about and 
settled where they willed. Historians call 
those centuries of tribes and chiefs, beginning 
with the Pelasgians, the Tribal Age of Greece. 
Primitive and barbarous though it was, life in 
those old days was charming and idyllic — like 

12 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

woodland music or some rude, sweet pastoral 
poem. 

Often picturesque hordes of those old 
Greeks or Hellenes, together with their flocks 
and herds, roamed through the forests of 
laurel, palm and cypress and trailed over 
rugged mountains. They were seeking rich 
pasture lands, near some steep crag or hill on 
which to build their fort. 

What jolly, carefree days those were! The 
flocks and herds cropped grass and flowers by 
the way. They drank from silver mountain 
streams and rested in the cooling shade of 
trees. The hardy Greeks ate nuts and fruits 
plucked from the forests, and drank from those 
same silver streams. At night they flung them- 
selves upon the ground to sleep and dream 
beneath the stars. Their women and chil- 
dren took refuge from the night in some leafy 
covert of the woods. Who knows? Perhaps 

^3 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

they slept in some lovely, ancient grotto of the 
nymphs. Those mothers crooned soft lullabies 
to tired ears, just as dear mothers have done 
through all the ages. What joy it was to sleep 
in moonlit groves a-lilt with songs of nightin- 
gales! And then to waken in the dewy, rosy 
morning, among the trees and birds! 

But we must not think that all the Tribal 
days were jolly and carefree, glad and happy. 
Often hills and vales echoed with the groans 
and cries of kinsman fighting kinsman, and 
the sweet notes of shepherds' pipes and the 
shouts and play of children were hushed in 
the awful tumult. 

Right well did those old Hellenes know that 
their pasture lands must have hill-forts and 
walled towns to protect them from wandering 
hostile tribes. 

Many a hill-fort thus selected by the wan- 
dering Hellenes became an Acropolis of the 

H 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

historic days, and the walled town they built 
about it grew to be a famous city. All unwit- 
tingly those old Greeks were laying the foun^ 
dations for that glorious civilization which 
was destined for Hellas. 



HOW LOVELY HELLAS HELPED 

LOVELY Hellas was fashioned and fitted by 
nature for freedom and culture, poetry and 
song. 

Close-pressed to a grim wall of mountains, 
Hellas hung like a magnificent citadel out in 
the seas, a glorious guardian of liberty. For 
did not her huge sea moats and rugged moun- 
tain walls keep back hordes of foreign in- 
vaders? 

The sea waters had laughed and pushed 
themselves into the land until all parts of Hel- 
las were close to the sea ; those bays and inlets, 

15 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

together with flashing streams anci rugged 
mountains, had dimpled all Hellas with water- 
girt, mountain-walled valleys that were mina- 
ture kingdoms of grasses, birds, flowers and 
sunshine. 

The picturesque bands of wanHering Hel- 
lenes invaded those kingdoms, built their hill- 
'forts and walled towns, took the grasses for 
pasturelands, made friends with the birds and 
the flowers, and worshipped the sunshine. 
What gay, brilliant invasions and victories! 
Not a war paen,but the song of bird and the 
perfume of flowers! But those happy, blood- 
less invasions made for freedom and culture, 
poetry and song. 

!A11 the world to the westward was unknowrt 
and barbarous. The glowing young day be- 
gins in the east with the sunrise and carries 
its glories and charms to the westward, and in 
the rosy dawn of creation, civilization and 

i6 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

culture began in the east and followed the 
golden path of the sun. 

Lovely flower-jewele'd Hellas faced the east 
— faced the glorious sunrise, civilization and 
culture. 

Only the beautiful Aegean Sea, with its 
countless enchanting harbors and delightsome 
islands, rolled between ancient Hellas and 
pagan Oriental culture and splendor. The 
breezes of morning were ever impatient to 
waft fair-sailing vessels from Hellas over the 
Aegean Sea toward the sunrise and splendor. 
The winds of evening were joyous and eager 
lightly to blow them back home. 

What a heritage was Hellas! A glorious 
guardian of liberty, she offered the Hellenes 
minature kingdoms, all teeming with natural 
wealth, to be strongholds of freedom and cul- 
ture. 

Her countless enchanting harbors and de- 

17 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

lightsome islands, and the broad expanse of 
blue sea were like beautiful sirens wooing the 
Hellenes to a life on the waves, to trade, travel, 
colonization, glory and power. 

And the mingled beauty of mountain and 
sea, the soft splendor of brilliant blue skies, 
and the rosy clearness of a radiant atmosphere 
were like the Muses of Mount Helicon, in- 
spiring the people to poetry and song. 



THE WANDERING BARDS OR 

POETS AND SOME OF THE 

SONGS THEY SANG 



THE WANDERING BARDS OR 
POETS 

iTHE stately centuries rolled on, leaving Hel- 
las all aglow with the roseate dawn of civiliza- 
tion. 

In the dim far away years the wandering 
Hellenes felt the spell of sea-moat and grim 
mountain walls. Their hill-forts and walled 
towns grew to be city-states, and their mina- 
ture water-girt, mountain-walled valleys were 
strongholds of sceptered kings, nobles and war- 
riors. The enchanting harbors, laughing 
waves, and fair morning breezes wafted them 
far out to sea. There the rude Hellenes sensed 
the charm of the east, and the glories of civil- 
ization. Soon that broad expanse of blue sea 
was a road for trade, travel, culture, and 

21 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

wealth, and beautiful cities of Hellas were 
blossoming in Asia Minor and on the islands. 

The potent poetic spell of the land had 
awakened the poets, and lovely Hellas was 
thrilling and glowing with their songs and 
with the joys and labor of civilization. The 
tribal days of Hellas were over. 

The poets were singing how from the first 
beginning gods and earth were born; and the 
great deep, and the stars, and the blue heavens 
above ; how from those gods sprang other gods, 
givers of all great and good gifts. 

They were singing of great Zeus, the father 
of gods and of men, and of gods and goddesses 
who dwelt in palaces far upon Mount 
Olympus. 

And there were love songs of gods and god- 
desses, who dwelt low on earth, of those who 
dwelt deep down in the sea, and of grim 
Hades under the earth. 

22 



j 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

They were singing strange tales of the wick- 
edness of men, and of a raging flood, sent by 
great Zeus in his anger. How that flood had 
destroyed all the people of earth but Pyrrha 
and Deucalion, who, at the will of Zeus, cast 
stones on the ground from which sprang forth 
the Hellenes. 

The poets were wandering bards or min- 
strels, who went over land and sea, singing or 
reciting their poems to the notes of sweet- 
toned lyres, and they were welcomed in camp, 
hut and palace. 

Twanging their harps, they sang the deeds 
of gods, heroes, and men, of wonderful wars, 
and the founding of cities. They sang of 
fierce-snorting, fire-breathing dragons, and 
many-headed, flesh-eating serpents and mon- 
sters, slain by mighty heroes — the children of 
gods and of men. 

There were glad songs of the woods and of 

23 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the mountains, of laughing nymphs and reel- 
ing satyrs sporting in woodlands, and two- 
horned Pan faring over the headlands. 

But best of all the wandering bards loved to 
sing the deeds of gods and heroes. 

THE CREATION OF THE EARTH 

THE poets said that once there was no smiling 
earth, with its laughter, song and play, its 
happy babes and children. There was no life- 
giving air with its fierce winds and gentle 
breezes; no deep blue sky and fleecy clouds; 
neither was there any sea with foaming waves 
and billows. All those, and more, were jum- 
bled into one mighty mass called Chaos. And 
Chaos was full of countless beginnings, but all 
were ugly and discordant. 

At last some strange, kind, wonderful god, 
full of life and love, put an end to Chaos. 

24 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Then all things were fair and splendid. 
Grass-covered and flower-crannied, the earth 
smiled in the golden sunlight, and the deep 
blue sky with fleecy clouds arched overhead. 
In the same golden sunlight rolled the sea with 
its foaming waves and billows, and the rivers 
and lakes, the woodland streams and the foun- 
tains flashed and sparkled like jeweled ribands. 
Hills and vales were in the land, and glorious 
snow-capped mountains; giant trees waved 
their branches to the breezes that were per- 
fumed with the breath of a thousand flowers. 

Then lovely Night was born and trailed 
over the land. Stars gemmed the sky and the 
moon flung down her silver light. Sleep 
touched hill and vale and flower, while dreams 
hung tremulous in the air. 

Love, in a brooding, perfumed silence, was 

over it all. Each golden morrow brought back 

the blessed sunlight, and earth was ready for 

gods and for men. 

25 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

THE BATTLE BETWEEN ZEUS 
AND TYPHUS 

WHEN Zeus and the gods had cast forth the 
Titans fWrn Olympus, earth and Tartarus 
brought forth Typhus, a monster, whose feet 
were as untiring as those of the gods, and 
whose hands were strong enough to do their 
deeds of strength. From his shoulders arose 
a hundred snaky dragon heads with blacken- 
ing tongues. In each terrible head crackling 
fires shone and sparkled from the eyes that 
rolled about in their sockets. 

In those fearful heads were voices that 
uttered all sounds of earth — soft tones meet 
for the gods, the song of the nightingale, the 
cry of the wounded stag, the roar of the lion, 
the yell of the whelp, the howl of the wolf, the 
loud bellowing cry of the bull, and the hissing 
of serpents. That horrible quivering creature 
aspired to be ruler over gods and men. 

26 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Great Zeus saw the peril and danger and 
instantly thundered till earth and high heaven 
reeled with the crash. He uprose in his wrath 
and all Mount Olympus shook beneath his 
everlasting feet. The monster darted flames 
and blasts of fiery winds, while Zeus hurled 
thunderbolts and lightnings. The burning 
radiance diffused over the earth, the billows 
heaved and foamed round the shores, and all 
was wildest confusion. Even the Titans, down 
in murky Tartarus, shuddered with fear when 
they heard the rage of tumult and the din of 
battle. 

In the fullness of his might great Zeus gath- 
ered and grasped all the thunders and light- 
nings and at a bound he leaped from Olympus 
and smote the screaming Typhus. The fifty 
heads hissed and scorched in one blaze of fire 
and thundering Zeus had quelled him. 
Thunder-smitten and mangled, he fell among 

27 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the dark, rugged mountain-hollows. Earth 
groaned beneath his weight and the heat and 
the vapors that arose from his body spread 
over the land melting rocks and drying up 
rivers. In bitterness of heart Zeus hurled his 
body from earth down the wide abyss of 
Hades, and it rolled with a sickening thud 
into gloomy Tartarus, forever. 

The toils of the gods were over. Great Zeus 
took hisf place high on Olympus as the father 
and ruler of gods and of men and divided all 
honors wisely and fairly among the gods. He 
made Poseidon, his brother, ruler over the 
sea and the waters, and to grim Hades he gave 
the dread mansions of the underworld, and he 
gave him misty Tartarus, where were im- 
prisoned the fallen Titans and Typhoes. 

Then were born the blue-eyed Athene, Jus- 
tice, Order and Peace, the Hours and the 
Graces, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, 

28 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

and the nine Muses, who danced on Mount 
Helicon. Zeus made white-armed Hera his 
bride and to them were born blooming Hebe 
and grim-visaged Mars. Other gods and god- 
desses were born and to each one, mighty Zeus 
apportioned some beautiful work and honor. 
All was peace and joy on Olympus. 

THE COMING OF THE IMMORTALS 

FR.OM out that brooding, perfumed silence 
Heaven and Earth brought forth a race of 
god-like creatures, the Titans, strong, stern 
and mighty. Of those Titans, the wily Kronus 
was the youngest and the sternest of Earth's 
sons. 

Thousands of graceful nymphs, children of 
the Titans, played among the gladed hills of 
earth and splashed in woodland streams and 
fountains. Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, 

29 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

builded his coral palace deep down in the 
ocean, while his fifty fair daughters, among 
whom was silver-footed Thetis, ravished the 
halls with their music. 

Earth brought forth three Cyclops, giants 
haughty in spirit and resembling gods, save 
that a single eye was fixed in the middle 
of their foreheads. The Cyclops had three 
brothers, fierce and dreadful, who each had 
fifty heads, and a hundred arms growing from 
his body. Heaven would not permit the ter- 
rible creatures to live upon the earth, but cast 
them down in gloomy Tartarus and bound 
them fast with cords of iron. 

Monsters and dragons of the land and the 
deep were born, and also the three Grey Sis- 
ters, who had but one eye and one tooth among 
them and nodded on a white log of drift-ice 
beneath the cold winter moon. Then were 
born the Gorgons, who lived on the further- 

30 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

most verge of the earth, beyond where the 
sweet maids of the Evening Star danced round 
the sacred tree and plucked the bloomy golden 
apples of Hesperides, that were guarded by a 
hundred-headed dragon. 

The Titans were the gods of the earth. Wily 
Kronus builded him a throne high on Mount 
Olympus and wedded Rhea, a fair-haired 
Titan. To them were born the glorious race 
of the gods, the givers of all great and good 
gifts. Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, the golden- 
sandaled; grim Hades, and Poseidon, the great 
earth-shaker, were born. But huge Kronus 
devoured each baby god, fearful lest one of 
them more splendid than he should grow up 
and usurp his throne and his crown, for the 
tidings had once reached his ear that it had 
been ordained by fate that to his own son he 
should bow down his strength. 

When Zeus, the sire of gods and of men, was 

31 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

born, fair-haired Rhea begged Heaven and 
Earth to save the dear little god from the fury 
of Kronus. Earth took to herself the mighty 
babe and hid it away in the shadowy, flowery 
caves of Mount Ida. She gave to the imperial 
Kronus a heavy stone wrapped in swaddling 
clothes, which he greedily snatched and swal- 
lowed, little dreaming that the child lived, and 
would soon cast him forth from Olympus and 
himself rule the Immortals. 

Far away in Mount Ida, Zeus, attended by 
Earth and the nymphs, grew up in great 
majesty and beauty. One day in the full glow 
of godhood, he left the fragrant haunts of his 
childhood and appeared on Mount Olympus. 
Charmed and overawed by his presence, 
Kronus knew Zeus for his son, and he belched 
forth the stone, and the gods and goddesses 
whom he had Hevoured. Hestia, Demeter, 
Hera the golden-sandaled, grim Hades, and 

32 




NEPTUNE 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Poseidon, the earth-shaker, were full-grown 
and shining, but Zeus towered above all, as 
towers the oak above the rose-tree. Kronus 
knew that the time was near when that majes- 
tic company would rule over heaven and 
earth, and he would be cast forth from Olym- 
pus. 

THE WAR BETWEEN THE GODS 
AND THE TITANS 

FROM the beginning, it was decreed that 
Zeus should be father of gods and men, and 
that the gods should win glories and great vic- 
tories over the Titans. 

Zeus sung forth a song of battle, and the 
gods flung back the refrain. They met in their 
awful splendor on the highest peaks of Olym- 
pus, and pledged themselves to wage fierce 
war against the Titans, a war for conquest and 
celestial empire. 

33 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

On the Othrys, a lordly chain of mountains 
to the southward, Kronus flung forth a brazen 
war cry and gathered the Titans about him, all 
chafing and eager to wage deadly conflict with 
Zeus and the gods. Prometheus and Epime- 
theus, brothers and Titans, espoused the cause 
of great Zeus, and took their stand on Mount 
Olympus. 

Thus opposed each to each, the Titans 
warred from Othry's loftiest summits and the 
gods from the snowy peaks of Olympus. Long 
they fought with a toil that was soul-distress- 
ing. For ten years and more the furious battle 
went on without ceasing and neither host won 
or lost in the conflict 

But now Zeus unloosed the Cyclops and the 
hundred-armed giants whom Heaven had fast- 
locked deep down in gloomy Tartarus. Those 
giants yelled with delight when released from 
their bitter bondage, and arose from the depths 

34 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

of darkness, up through the blessed sunlight, 
to the highest peaks of Olympus, raging 
against the Titans. The Cyclops bore with 
them the thunderbolts and the lightnings 
which they gave to Zeus to be his weapons 
of warfare. 

Zeus set before the giants and gods the nec- 
tar and ambrosia. iWhen all had shared the 
heavenly food a noble, heroic feeling kindled 
in each breast, and every god and giant burned 
with an ardor to destroy the Titans. The mon- 
sters whom Zeus had released from Tartarus 
were of enormous force. From their many 
shoulders fifty heads and a hundred arms 
sprang forth and with the Cyclops, they pulled 
up crags and mountains and hurled them aloft. 

On the other side, the Titans closed their 
phalanx, joined their hands of strength and 
prowess and displayed new works of war. 

Zeus no longer kept back his anger, but was 

35 



STORIES OE HELLAS: 

in truth a very god and went forth from Mount 
Olympus in fearful majesty, hurling thunder- 
bolts and flashing burning, radiant lightning. 
The whirling flash cast splendor, forests 
crackled and the seas were boiling. 'Heat and 
vapor arose, winds were blowing, war cries 
ascending and thunderbolts, mountains and 
crags were hurling through the air. It seemed 
that earth and heaven were meeting in one 
crashing din. 

Full long the Titans stood and bore the 
brunt of war. The thunderbolts and lightning 
deprived them of their eyes. The hands of 
the hundred-armed giants hurled each three 
times a hundred rocks against them. Their 
hands of strength bore the Titans down to 
Tartarus and bound them with galling chains. 
Poseidon forged a wall of brass about them 
and a night of triple darkness. And there the 
giants who had each a hundred arms and fifty 

36 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

hands growing from their bodies were set as 
faithful sentinels of Zeus. Atlas, a Titan 
rebel, was banished to the western rim of the 
earth and doomed to hold the skies forever on 
his shoulders. 



THE STORY OF PROMETHEUS 

PEACE and love brooded over the earth and 
the sea that lay like great golden dreams, 
awaiting the coming of man. 

Prometheus and Epimetheus, the Titans, 
who had espoused the cause of the gods, left 
the shining courts of Olympus and sped earth- 
ward in the glow and glory of the sunshine. 
00 them had been given the divine task of cre- 
ating man and all animals of the earth and the 
waters. 

Soon myriads of fishes swam in the seas, 
birds poured forth their songs, and bees, in- 

27 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sects, beetles, reptiles and worms, and animals 
of every size and condition were upon the 
earth — all created by Epimetheus. To each 
he gave some special gift, as song, wings, fins, 
talons, feathers, shelly coverings, cunning 
courage, strength and swiftness. 

Prometheus took earth and water and fash- 
ioned the first man of earth in the image of the 
gods. Epimetheus had made all the animals 
to look toward the earth, but Prometheus made 
man upright of stature that he might gaze on 
the stars. He gave him all the good gifts of 
earth and still longed for some greater and 
more wonderful gift whereby man might grow 
more godlike and win dominion over the land 
and the sea. He knew that fire was the great- 
est thing in heaven and earth and that it was 
sacred to the immortal gods. So well did he 
love mankind that he resolved to brave the 
eternal wrath of great Zeus and secure some of 

38 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the treasure. With the help of Athene, Pro- 
metheus ascended to the very gates of the sun, 
snatched a firebrand and, hiding it in his 
bosom, floated to earth. Man now had in his 
possession the gift whereby he might win do- 
minion over the land and the sea, build cities, 
and develop commerce, science and art. 

Then followed the Golden Age of Earth, 
when all things were gay, joyous and happy. 
Men and animals were innocent and harmless 
and lived together like brothers. Flowers, 
fruits and harvests grew in riotous abundance, 
the streams flowed with milk and wine, and 
honey distilled itself from the trees. There 
were no quarrels, sickness, sin, labor, sor- 
row or death and life was an eternal spring- 
time. 

The ever-watchful eye of the great Zeus saw 
the radiant light down on earth and knew it 
was the sacred fire. Maddened with fury he 

39 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

(dashed down to earth and carried it back to 
Olympus, vowing revenge on Prometheus. 

Zeus sent the seasons, the days were made 
shorter, fierce winds swept over the headlands, 
and harvests no longer grew without being 
planted. Men and animals were forced to seek 
refuge from the heat and cold in the caves, 
grottos and leafy woodland coverts. 

Prometheus again went to the gates of the 
sun and stole sacred fire which he carried to 
earth in a fennel-stalk, and soon thousands of 
fires were kindled. Prometheus taught men 
to build rude huts, fashion the plow, harness 
the steeds to the moving car, and to bend the 
neck of the ox to the yoke. 

The altars of earth were neglected and gods 
and men were contending over the rights of 
the sacrifice. Eager to procure every good 
thing for man, Prometheus divided a huge ox, 
intended for the sacrifice, and placed all the 

40 




PROMETHEUS BOUND 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

flesh and rich fat in the skin, and the bones he 
cunningly put in a bundle of gleaming white 
fat. Then wily Prometheus laughed low to 
himself and said to great Zeus : "Most glori- 
ous Zeus, greatest of ever-living gods, choose 
which of these you would have men burn on 
the altars!" Zeus, with both hands, lifted up 
the white fat. And oh, how angry he was 
when he saw the bones arranged with such art! 
Henceforth the tribes of men burnt the bones 
wrapped in fat on their fragrant altars and 
feasted themselves on the flesh of the animal. 
Prometheus had cheated Zeus and the gods 
in the sacrifice, and for the second time had 
stolen the fire from heaven. The great Thun- 
derer saw the fires among men and remem- 
bered the burnt offerings of bones. He vowed 
that he would wreak evil on Prometheus and 
men. He seized Prometheus and bore him 
away to the highest peak of the Caucasian 

41 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

Mountains, where he bound him down with 
painful chains and bade him lie on the rocks 
for a thousand years. Zeus sent a hungry 
eagle each day to feed upon his liver, and at 
night while the bird slept the liver of Prome- 
theus grew whole again ready for the next 
day's feasting. So well did the great-hearted 
Prometheus love mankind that, for ages, he 
bore the agony of the rock, the bird, and the 
chains, and while men were praising and hon- 
oring him on earth he was enduring all the 
pain and the misery that mortals have known. 



PANDORA 

CHAINING Prometheus to a rock for a 
thousand years and sending an eagle each day 
to feed on his liver was a fierce, terrible pun- 
ishment for a god to inflict. But it did not 

42 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

appease the wrath of Zeus. He was still furi- 
ously angry with man for accepting the fire 
from Prometheus. In his anger, Zeus decided 
to create countless evils and send them to earth 
by a beautiful woman. 

Hephaestus, the god who was lame in both 
feet, fashioned a lovely maiden. Athene clad 
her in silver-white raiment and set a golden 
coronet around her beauteous head, with gar- 
lands of sweet-budding meadow flowers. She 
hung about her a veil that enveloped her in 
fleecy, billowy folds like shimmering mist. 
Zeus led the fair lady into the presence of the 
gods, and all were charmed with her loveli- 
ness. They named her Pandora, and each god 
and goddess gave her some exquisite gift of 
grace, charm or beauty, until Pandora, who 
was to be the first woman of earth, was indeed 
a ravishment of wonder. Hermes, the charm- 
ing young scamp of a god, gave her the fatal 

43 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

gift of curiosity, and that gift was destined 
to work unutterable woe upon earth. 

Zeus had fashioned his countless evils and 
imprisoned them in a box made of ivory and 
gold, fast-clasped with jeweled seals. The 
god placed the gift in her hands, bidding her 
never to open it, knowing full well that the 
gift of curiosity given her by Hermes would 
cause her to peep into the box. 

'Hermes took Pandora and sped away to 
earth. He gave her to Epimetheus for his 
bride. Men wondered at her grace and her 
beauty, and land and sea burst into flowery 
splendor at her coming. 

Pandora was delighted with earth, but she 
wandered over its fragrant ways, thinking only 
of the box made of gold and ivory. Ah, the 
fatal gift of curiosity, given her by Hermes! 
That box was filled with woes and evils which 
had never before been known upon earth. 

44 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Pandora broke the jeweled clasps and 
opened the box, when out rushed the myriads 
of ugly creatures — pain, trouble, sickness, lies, 
worry, pestilence, wars, sorrow and death. 
(They flew over land and sea, stinging Pandora 
and men as they went. 

Screaming with fright and pain. Pandora 
quickly closed the box. A wee soft voice in- 
side kept piping, "Please let me out. Pandora; 
I am Hope, and I can take away the sting of 
all evils." She again opened the box, and 
out flew a shiny, gauzy creature with glisten- 
ing wings. She kissed away Pandora's pain, 
then floated away among men, and she has 
ever been one of earth's greatest blessings. 

THE FLOOD 

ALL things were changed. Men and beasts 
were no longer friends. The animals skulked 
through the forests, wild and savage, feeding 

45 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

upon man and man feeding upon them. 
Crime, sickness, sorrow, wars, hatred and 
death were in the land and the gods and the 
altars were forgotten. 

Great Zeus was so angry at the wickedness 
of men and women, and at the neglect of their 
gods and their altars that he determined to 
send a great flood, which would drown all liv- 
ing creatures^ and then re-people the land 
with a race of god-serving people. 

Poseidon emptied the rivers and seas over 
the earth, and mighty Zeus sent storm-clouds 
that poured down oceans of water. All the 
earth except the snowy peaks of Parnassus 
were deluged with water, and all living things 
were destroyed, save Pyrrha and Deucalion, 
who were standing on the top of Parnassus. 
Deucalion was the son of Prometheus and 
Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus. They 
were husband and wife, and had always lived 

46 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

pure, devout lives, serving their gods and their 
altars. Zeus remembered their good deeds, 
and ordered them to live and re-people the 
earth. The north winds blew away the storm- 
clouds and Poseidon bade Triton to blow on 
his wreathed horn and sound a retreat to the 
waters. 

Once again the earth lay smiling and fair in 
the sunlight, and Pyrrha and Deucalion were 
the only living creatures upon it. They went 
into the Delphian temple, and there before the 
unkindled altar they fell prostrate, praying 
their gods to make known unto them what they 
should do. The oracle said: '^Good people, 
go forth from this temple, casting stones over 
thy shoulders." Hermes appeared with the 
stones, and Pyrrha and Deucalion went forth 
out into the world, casting stones as they went. 
Soon there were thousands of new people. 
The stones cast by Deucalion turned into 

47 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

brave, hardy men, and those cast by Pyrrha 
made beautiful women. Cities were built, 
heroes were born, and temples and gods were 
again held sacred. The new race of people 
was called Hellenes, in honor of Hellen, the 
beloved son of Pyrrha and Deucalion. 

PERSEUS 

THE poets twanged their harps and re- 
cited the deeds of Perseus, who was born in a 
great brazen tower, where his mother, the 
beautiful Danae,; had been fast-locked by the 
wicked king of Argo. 

That same wicked king placed the mother 
and babe in a huge golden chest and set it 
afloat on the sea, hoping that the winds and 
the waves would bear them out and away to 
some horrible death. 

But those were the days when the earth was 

48 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

young. Then the skies were always blue, the 
waves always gentle, and no storms ever 
ruffled the deep. The golden cask danced 
over the billows, while the sweet babe slept on 
its mother's breast and the gentle breezes sang 
drowsy lullabies. 

'A fisherman cast his nets out to sea and 
twined in their meshes the huge golden chest. 
He drew it ashore, and his heart rejoiced and 
was glad when he saw the pretty young mother 
and the tiny, blue-eyed, golden-haired Perseus. 
He made them his own loving children, and 
for many happy years they lived on that frag- 
rant, water-girt isle of the sea. 

Perseus adored his dear mother and loved 
and obeyed the fisherman. He grew up like 
a god, wise, good, true, and dauntless in heart 
and spirit. So beautifully did he play on the 
lyre, and so skilful was he in rowing, swim- 
ming, running, leaping and wrestling, and in 

49 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

throwing the javelin and spear, that the peo- 
ple called him the son of great Zeus. The 
young hero made wonderful cruises over the 
seas and did many deeds of daring. 

The beautiful Danae was made temple- 
sweeper in a temple of Athene, and gods and 
men set her son a dangerous task to perform. 
He was sent to slay Medusa and to carry her 
head to the blue-eyed Athene, that she might 
wear it for ever on her bright, polished shield. 

Far away in the Unshapen Land beyond 
River Ocean lived the Medusa with her sis- 
ters, the Gorgons. Her sisters were immortal, 
huger than elephants and fouler than swine. 
Their bodies were covered with vile, brazen 
talons and they had flapping wings, a hundred- 
fold more massive than wings of the eagle. 
But Medusa was mortal and had once been a 
blithesome girl, more charming than day, un- 
til she boasted that she was fairer than Athene. 

J50 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

From that hour she was banished to outer 
darkness and horror, to be a sister to the loath- 
some Gorgons. She was a maiden no longer, 
but with talons of brass and wide-sweeping 
wings, she was clad in gay plumage from 
which her gleaming throat and face rose like 
some ruined dream of beauty, while her hair 
was one mass of hissing vipers. So terrible 
was the head of Medusa that any living thing 
that gazed upon it was immediately turned to 
stone. 

And the grim task set young Perseus to do 
was to cut off that snake-entwined head and 
bear it over land and sea to Athene. No hero 
of earth could have done it without the help of 
the gods. Athene lent her own polished shield 
as a mirror to reflect the Gorgon, for we know 
that not even Perseus dared gaze on that head. 
A goat-skin was attached to the shield wherein 
to carry the treasure. Hermes fastened his 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

golden-winged sandals to the hero's ankles and 
gave him his magic sword. 

Borne by the winged sandals, Perseus flew 
over land and sea faster than skims the swal- 
low. He passed the western rim of earth, 
where Atlas held the sky on his shoulders, and 
on past the white log of drift-ice, where nod- 
ded the Three Grey Sisters under the pale, 
cold moon. He sped through the sun-bright 
deep of the Hyperboreans and paused a while 
in the Garden of Hesperides while the fleet 
maidens went down into Hades and fetched 
him the hat of darkness which made him in- 
visible. 

After countless wanderings, Perseus reached 
the Unshapen Land, where there is neither 
night nor day and where everything is topsy- 
turvy. He heard the rustle of wings and the 
dreary clanking of brazen talons. 

Holding Athene's shield aloft he saw re- 

52 




PERSEUS 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

fleeted the Gorgons, as they lay sleeping. Like 
some enchanting horror, Medusa was tossing 
and moaning, her cheeks pale and her eyes and 
mouth drawn and clenched with everlasting 
pain^ and sorrow. Every snake on her head 
was alive, hissing and writhing, with bright, 
beady eyes and forked tongues of poison. Gaz- 
ing into the shield, Perseus reached for the 
sword of Hermes, and with one fell stroke cut 
off the head of Medusa, wrapped it in the 
goat skin, and turned about homeward. Me- 
dusa's talons and wings rattled when she fell 
dead on the rocks and awakened her sleeping 
sisters. Howling and yelling with rage, they 
rushed after Perseus, their wings beating the 
air and their hot breath forming clouds of 
scorching vapor. But the sandals of Hermes 
were swifter than Gorgon wings, and soon 
they were left behind like specks on a distant 
sky. 

'52 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Perseus went over mountain, plain, and sea. 
As he passed over the deserts of earth, blood- 
drops fell from the head that bred deadly asps 
and serpents. A few drops fell into the sea 
and forthwith Pegasus, a famous winged 
horse, appeared. Athene caught and tamed 
the winged steed and gave it to the Muses who 
dwelt on Mount Helicon. 

Once in the early dawn as he flew over the 
sea he saw a maiden chained to some rocks 
down at the water's edge. It was Andromeda, 
the princess of the kingdom. She had been 
put there as an offering to appease the wrath 
of a sea-god. Even then the grinning monster 
was lashing the waves with his tail as he shot 
forward to devour his delicate victim. 
Quicker than thought, Perseus, made invisible 
by his hat of darkness, darted down like a 
shooting star and flashed the head of Medusa 
before the eyes of the beast. Instead of a sea- 

'54 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

god there was a long black rock with the water 
gurgling over it. Removing his hat of dark- 
ness, Perseus made himself known to the prin- 
cess and with the magic sword he clove asun- 
der the chains that held her, then he wedded 
Andromeda in the royal palace of her king- 
dom. 

Taking her in his arms, he floated away 
toward home, stopping many times on the way 
to redress wrongs by unveiling the Gorgon's 
head and turning cruel men and kings and 
beasts into stone. Perseus was made king of 
Argo and Andromeda was his young queen. 

Athene ever afterward wore the head of the 
Medusa on her bright, polished shield, and 
when Perseus and Andromeda died^the god- 
dess carried them, up to the skies, where they 
shone as beacon stars through the night, but 
during the day they feasted with the gods on 
Olympus. 

55 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

THE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS 

THE poets told wonderful tales of Minos, 
king of Crete, who was the wisest of all mortal 
kings. His ships were as countless as the sea- 
gulls, and his palace was like some marbled 
hill. They sang of his throne of beaten gold, 
of the speaking statues that adorned his halls, 
and of the great dancing-room of Ariadne, his 
daugher. They told of the Minotaur, a hor- 
rible monster with a body of a man, the head 
of a bull, and the teeth of a lion, that was 
owned and beloved by Minos. The beast was 
kept in a building called the Labyrinth, which 
had been builded by the orders of the king, 
and consisted of hundreds of rooms, both 
above and below the ground. So full was it 
of doors and of windings that none who en- 
tered therein ever found their way out again. 
In the cavern depths of those rooms, the Mino- 

56 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

taur pawed and raged, awaiting his yearly 
victims of seven youths and seven maidens 
from Athens. 

And this is the tale that the minstrels told 
of those victims and the Adventure of The- 
seus: 

Once Minos had a son who went up to 
Athens and won in the great sports and games. 
The Athenians admired his beauty and 
strength and honored him as a hero. But 
Aegeus, the king, was jealous and fearful lest 
the youth should take away his scepter and be- 
come king of Athens. In his wrath he plotted 
against him and slew him, no man knew how, 
or where. Then Minos went to Athens with 
a mighty army to avenge his son's death. He 
would not depart from the city until the peo- 
ple promised him a yearly tribute of seven 
youths and seven maidens who wxre to be 
chosen by lot, and sent in a black-sailed vessel 

'57 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

to the Island of Crete and there fed one by 
one to the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. 

Once, years before, that same king, Aegeus, 
was traveling in a distant kingdom when he 
met and married the princess. They lived 
happily together and had a sturdy young son 
named Theseus. One day the king was called 
home to Athens, and for some strange cause 
he left the mother and babe behind. Before 
departing he gave the queen a pair of golden 
sandals and a bronze sword with a golden hilt, 
saying, as he did so : 'Tlace the sword and san- 
dals under a marble slab close by the temple of 
Poseidon, and when Theseus is strong enough 
to raise the stone he shall journey alone to 
Athens and be made known as the prince of 
the city." 

For eighteen long, weary years the mother 
watched and waited, training her boy to be 
kind and gentle and to do deeds of prowess. 

58 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Then she took him up to the temple and from 
there sent him to a thicket, near by, to find the 
marble slab beneath the laurels and plane- 
trees. With one superb effort of strength the 
boy lifted the slab and saw the golden sandals 
and sword. With a joyful cry he gathered 
them up and sped away to his mother as fleet 
as runs the deer in the forest. 

She then told him of the beautiful Athens in 
Attica. She told him that Attica was the land 
of Cecrops, the serpent-tailed king, and was 
made up of twelve walled-cities, and bee- 
haunted, vine-clad mountains; meadows, 
where blossomed the asphodel and the crocus, 
and wooded glens wherein the nightingale 
poured forth her song. 

The queen-mother asked Theseus what he 
would do were he ever made king of Athens, 
and the boy replied: ^'I would rule so wisely 
and well that when I died the people would 

59 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

mourn for me, as mourn the sheep for their 
lost shepherd." 

The mother rejoiced and said, "Depart, my 
son, to Athens, for thou art indeed a mighty 
prince, the son of King Aegeus, and some day 
thou mayst be king of the city." 

With his eyes alight with a new-born fire, 
Theseus put on the sandals and sword, kissed 
his mother a loving adieu and fared over the 
way to Athens, slaying dragons, righting great 
wrongs and ridding the forests of robbers till 
his fame and glory spread throughout the 
kingdom. 

Theseus ascended the long flight of steps 
that led up to the Acropolis and entered the 
city of Athens. He sought out the royal pal- 
ace and found the court feasting and making 
merry. He entered the banqueting hall, and 
the ancient king knew Theseus to be his own 
beloved son, by the golden sandals and the 

60 




THESEUS 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

glittering sword. 'He clasped the boy in his 
arms, and they both wept for the sheer joy of 
meeting. The people came out with harps, 
dances and songs. They offered sacrifices to 
Athene and reveled throughout the night, re- 
joicing that their king had found a valiant son 
and the city a prince and a hero. 

A herald appeared in the court demanding 
the yearly tribute to King Minos of Crete. 
The whole city was thrown into a panic of 
mourning and lamentations, for seven brave 
sons and seven fair daughters of Athens must 
be sent to the Labyrinth to feed the Minotaur. 

Theseus was appalled at the blood-curdling 
practice and resolved then and there to slay 
the Minotaur and free his people. When the 
lots were being cast the young hero offered 
himself as a victim. King Aegeus wept and 
stormed, forbidding so great a sacrifice. But 
Theseus sailed away in the black-sailed ship, 

6r 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

having promised his father to change the black 
sails to white if he returned victorious. 

The black-sailed ship reached the city of 
Crete which nestled beneath the peaks of 
Mount Ida, and those fourteen sons and 
daughters of Athens were taken before King 
Minos, who sat in his marbled palace. The 
king looked them over and ordered them sent 
to prison, and cast one by one to the monster, 
that the death of his son might be avenged. 

Theseus begged the king to allow him to be 
thrown first to the beast, and told him how he 
had chosen himself to be a victim. The king 
was so struck with the beauty and bravery of 
the youth that he begged him to go home in 
peace. Theseus replied: ''I will never depart 
from your city till I have stood face to face 
with the Minotaur.'' At that the king cried: 
"Take the mad man away and let him see my 
beloved monster." 

62 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

iThey led Theseus away to prison with the 
other youths and maidens. Ariadne, the king's 
daughter, saw the young prince of Athens as 
she came out of her great dancing-hall, and 
she loved him for his courage and strength. 
At night she crept into the prison and gave 
him a sword to slay the beast and a clue of 
thread by which he might find his way out of 
the Labyrinth. Theseus loved Ariadne and 
promised to make her his wife and take her 
away to his own beautiful city. He hid the 
sword and the clue of thread in his bosom and 
slept sweetly until the morning. 

In the evening the guards led him away to 
the Labyrinth. Theseus went down into that 
dark, winding gloom, but he carried the clue 
of thread, which he had fastened to a stone 
at the entrance, and let it unroll out of his 
hand as he went through the rooms and 
arches and over heaps of fallen stones. 

63 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

'He met the Minotaur in a narrow gorge 
of black cliffs, and was startled when he saw 
the stupendous beast roar, put down his head 
and plunge at him. The youth stepped 
quickly aside and struck at him with the 
sword, which Ariadne had given him. He 
stabbed him again and again, and the monster, 
who had never before felt a wound, ra» 
through the thousand wayed Labyrinth bel- 
lowing wildly with pain. Theseus was hot 
on his trail. He found him panting in a glen 
that was white with eternal snows. How they 
fought, man and beast! All that vast winding 
gloom echoed and trembled with the noise of 
the combat till the hero of Athens caught the 
Minotaur's horns, thrust back his head and 
pierced his throat with his sword. 

Halting and weary, Theseus made his way 
through the gloom by the clue of thread, till 
he reached the entrance of the building. There 

64 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

he found Ariadne, the princess, and whis- 
pered: ^^The monster is slain," and showed 
her the sword. In the star-lit darkness they 
hastened away to the prison and freed the 
youths and maidens, while the guards were 
sleeping heavily. Soon they were sailing away 
on the black-sailed ship, a merry crew bound 
for Athens. 

iThey reached an island, where Theseus 
and Ariadne were wedded, and all the gay 
crowd were spending the bridal day in the 
shadowy glades of the forest. Dionysus, the 
god of wine and revels, went wandering by 
and stole the fair Ariadne and bore her away 
to be his own bride. 

Again they set sail in the black-sailed ship, 
a sorrowing crew bound for Athens, and in 
his sorrow and grief Theseus forgot to change 
the black sails for white. 

Far away on a cliff sat old king Aegeus 

6s 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

watching for the return of the vessel. When 
he saw the black sails he gave one piercing 
shriek and fell headlong into the sea, which 
ever since has been called the Aegean. 

The people were wild with delight and won- 
der when they saw the youths and the maidens 
and knew their days of tribute were over. 
Theseus was crowned king of Athens and was 
honored as one of the greatest heroes of earth. 

HERACLES 

THE minstrels recited the deeds of Heracles, 
who was the son of great Zeus and was born 
within the gates of Thebes. 

Golden-sandalled Hera hated the young 
child, and when he was but a few days old she 
sent two terrible serpents to devour him with 
their poisonous fangs. They crept into the 
palace and coiled round the cradle. Their 

66 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

rustle and hissing awakened the babe, who sat 
up in his crib and rubbed his sleepy eyes. 
While his nurses stood by, helpless and 
screaming, Heracles strangled the deadly ser- 
pents with his baby fingers and laughed and 
cooed with delight. 

Heracles had a long, happy childhood and 
was trained by Chiron, a Centaur or creature 
of the woods who was half man and half 
horse and skilled in all arts and all virtues. 
Chiron was the teacher of many chieftains and 
heroes of Hellas and was greatly beloved by 
the Hellenes. So well did the Centaur train 
Heracles that he grew up fine, strong and 
noble, and could easily strangle a wolf or a 
lion. 

Once Heracles killed a lion that ranged 
through the mountains, and ever afterward 
wore its skin, which was his only garment. 
He pulled up a tree of the forest and carried 

67 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

it in his hand for a weapon. Then he went 
out into the world to seek his fortune. On the 
way he met two strange maidens named Pleas- 
ure and Duty. Pleasure was handsome and 
bold, and was clad in jeweled raiment. With 
smiles and dimples, she begged Heracles to 
follow her all the days of his life, offering 
him ease, comfort, good times and riches. 
Duty was a very plain, modest maiden. She 
stood aside and quietly asked the hero to fol- 
low her throughout his life; but she warned 
him that if he did so he would have to labor 
hard, do right, war against evil and endure 
many hardships and hunger. Heracles scorned 
all the soft smiles and fine arts of Pleasure, 
and chose to follow plain, simple Duty. He 
went on his way rejoicing, resisting tempta- 
tions and doing deeds of valor. 

Wicked Hera still hated the youth and de- 
vised means to destroy him. She persuaded 

68 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Zeus to decree that Heracles should serve a 
certain king of Hellas for a twelve-month. 
Now, that king was wicked and jealous like 
Hera, and was glad to have the hero in his 
power and service. He set him Twelve La- 
bors to perform, each fraught with great dan- 
ger and seemingly impossible. Heracles was 
angry and amazed at the injustice, and pon- 
dered long in his heart as to whether he should 
attempt them. He sought the oracle at Delphi, 
who bade him remember Duty and obey every 
task that was assigned him. Thrilling with 
joy and enthusiasm, Heracles went forth to 
perform all his labors. 

Now, listen, children, to the Twelve Labors 
of Heracles which the minstrels recited to the 
notes of their lyres : 

Heracles killed an awful lion that raged in 
Nemean forest and devoured men, women and 
children. The lion had a skin which no 

69 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

weapon could pierce, and when Heracles 
went into the forest he picked up the lion and 
strangled it in his powerful arms as easily as 
he had destroyed the deadly snakes in his 
babyhood. 

He destroyed the Hydra that lived in the 
marshes and ravaged the surrounding king- 
doms. When Heracles cut off one of the heads, 
he noticed that two more instantly grew. He 
told a servant to burn each wound with a fire- 
brand, and in that way the wise hero cut off 
every head. Heracles dipped some arrows into 
the Hydra's blood and they were thus made 
deadly poison, and were carried by the young 
hero during the rest of his life. 

The king told Heracles to capture a wild 
boar that roamed through the mountains of 
Arcadia. The youth caught the boar and car- 
ried it alive to the king, who was so fright- 
ened that he shut himself up in a brazen 

70 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

room of the palace and ordered the boar taken 
out of the city. 

Artemis had a beautiful stag with golden 
horns and brass hoofs, and so fleet was the stag 
that its feet seemed never to touch the ground. 
The king bade Heracles capture the animal 
and carry it home to him. For a long time the 
hero chased the stag, and at last drove it into 
a snowdrift, from which he freed it and car- 
ried it to the king in triumph. 

Some vicious birds lived close by a lake and 
fed on human flesh. Heracles shot his pois- 
oned arrows at them, which killed or drove 
them away forever. 

He defeated the Amazons, a strong race of 
fierce female warriors of Asia Minor, and 
kept as the spoil of the battle the exquisite 
girdle of their queen, which he gave to Ad- 
meta, the king's daughter. 

For thirty years a king had kept three thou- 

711 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sand head of cattle in some stables that had 
never been cleaned in all that time. Heracles 
was required to clean them, which he easily 
did by turning the course of a river through 
the stalls. 

Once Poseidon gave Minos, the king of 
Crete, a bull to offer up as a sacrifice. Minos 
was so charmed with the animal that he re- 
solved to keep it and sacrifice one of his own. 
Poseidon was very angry and caused the bull 
to go mad and dash over the island, frighten- 
ing the people and doing much damage. By 
the order of his king and master, Heracles 
caught the maddened animal, slung it over his 
shoulder and marched away to the palace. 

There was a king of Thrace who had some 
fine horses, which he fed on human flesh. He 
made a decree that all strangers who entered 
his kingdom should be seized, fattened and 
served as food to his horses. The valiant 

72 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

young Heracles overcame the king of Thrace 
and caused him to be fed to the horses, which 
he tamed and drove home to his master. 

Somewhere in Hellas was a frightful mon- 
ster with three bodies and three heads. Hera- 
cles slew the terrible creature and drove the 
king's flesh-eating cattle into the wilder- 
ness. 

Far away to the outermost verge of the 
earth was the Garden of the Hesperides, 
where grew the golden apples, that were 
guarded day and night by a hundred-headed 
dragon. The king ordered Heracles to fetch 
him some of the marvelous fruit. The hero 
was sorely perplexed, for none but the im- 
mortals knew where lay the Garden of the 
Hesperides. He found the Old Man of the 
Sea asleep on the beach, and held him fast 
until he told him that Prometheus alone could 
direct him to the garden. Now, we know that 

73 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Prometheus was bound to a rock, high on the 
Caucasian mountains, and that an eagle was 
feeding each day upon his liver. Heracles 
sprang up the mountainside, killed the hungry 
bird, snapped the chains and freed Prome- 
theus, the Titan and lover of mankind. So 
grateful was Prometheus for his freedom that 
he gladly told Heracles to go to Atlas, his 
brother, who would help him procure the 
apples. With a bound the young man was off 
and away to the western rim of the earth, 
where he found Atlas holding the sky on his 
shoulders. Atlas offered to get the apples if 
Heracles would hold up the sky. Quickly the 
burden was shifted to the broad shoulders of 
Heracles and Atlas stretched his long limbs 
and capered and danced for the pure joy of 
motion and freedom. Covering long miles with 
each stride, he hastened away and saw the 
golden apples glinting in the sunshine. He en- 

74 




(Jn</m(i/t .( -. 



HERACLES 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

tered the garden, slew the sleeping dragon, 
and soon appeared before Heracles laughing 
and holding aloft three apples of Hespian 
gold. Patient old Atlas took back the «ky on 
his shoulders, and Heracles went over land and 
sea singing gay songs and proud of his golden 
treasure. 

Heracles had nearly finished his twelve- 
month of service to the king. Only one more 
labor remained, and then the young hero 
would be freed from his bondage. A ruthless, 
three-headed dog guarded the entrance to 
Hades. And that dog had an evil trick of 
fawning with his tail and both ears on all who 
entered therein; but he lay in wait and de- 
voured all whom he found going forth from 
the gates of Hades and Persephone. Heracles 
went down into the underworld, and, without 
any weapon, seized and bound the dog and 
carried it up to the sunlight and then away to 

' 75 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the king, who was so frightened that he at once 
sent the dog back to Hades. 

The last labor was ended, and Heracles 
went over the world, serving whomsoever he 
pleased. After long years, weary with pain 
and sorrow, Heracles went up among the 
mountains, pulled up laurels and oaks, and 
builded his own funeral pyre. He gave his 
poisoned arrows to a friend who stood near, 
then lay down on the pyre, and bade that 
friend light it with a firebrand. Amidst the 
smoke and the flames, mighty Zeus was seen 
to descend in a thunder chariot and carry his 
son away to Olympus. There Heracles mar- 
ried a goddess and lived in a palace among 
the immortals. 



76 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

A WEDDING 

THE poets sang songs of silver-footed Thetis, 
who was born in the sea. She was a winsome 
young goddess who spent all her Hays in 
laughter and song. Her fifty fair sisters and 
the joyous sea-maids were her companions. 
iWith gleaming sea-moss twined in their 
streaming hair, and clad in the billowy gar- 
ments of ocean, they frolicked through marble 
sea-caves and sported on the backs of the dol- 
phins. They sailed through the sparkling 
waves in their fairy, pearl boats, and when 
Triton blew his wreathed horn they rode on 
the storm-crested billows. With gleesome 
songs and merry shouts they raced over the 
glistening sands and oft wandered afar into 
the forests to gather fragrant hyacinths and 
purpling violets. 
Once lovely Thetis strayed alone on the 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sands. Star-like flowers blossomed under her 
feet as she gathered the pinky-white shells and 
carolled songs of gladness. Her boat, a 
curved shell of hollow pearl, was anchored 
nearby in a sea wave. Peleus, a splendid young 
prince and hero of earth, was wandering over 
the same golden sands. He was dreaming of 
his deathless glories, won in the quest of the 
Golden Fleece amid the forests over the Helle- 
spont. They met on the sands and Peleus was 
lost in a trance of wonder, charmed with her 
radiant loveliness. There in the sunlight by 
the listening waters, the prince wooed the 
young daughter of the Old Man of the Sea 
and won her consent to be his sweet bride. 

They were wedded in her father's coral 
palace, deep down in the ocean, and all the sea 
was in a tumult of glory. The house was made 
glad with glittering splendor. Ivory gleamed 
on the thrones and goblets glinted on exqui- 

78 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

site tables. All the copses and glades of the 
woodlands, and the meadows of earth, yielded 
their rarest flowers, until, 

"Flattered with odors, 
The whole house brake into laughter." 

Peneus, the river-god of the fair vale of 
Tempe, bore gifts of nodding trees with moon- 
like blossoms and bright fruit, which he 
planted about the palace. Many rare viands 
were heaped on the banqueting tables, and all 
was feasting and mirth. The gods reclined on 
ivory couches and myriads of sea-maids sang 
bridal hymns to the music of golden lyres. In 
the midst of the hall, silver-footed Thetis re- 
clined on her glorious couch, which was made 
of the tusks of the elephants of India, and 
spread with a quilt, dyed purple with the dye 
of sea-shells and embroidered with scenes that 
pictured all the poesy of the earth. 
The goddess of Discord had snaky locks, 

79 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sour looks and a violent temper. She was not 
invited to the wedding, and had vowed to 
avenge the insult. When the mirth waxed the 
merriest, she glided into the hall and cast on 
the festive board a golden apple bearing the 
words, "For the most beautiful," and then 
vanished like some evil spirit. AH the joys 
and delights of the feast were as naught, for 
every sea-maid and goddess was claiming the 
prize of beauty. At last all gave way to Hera, 
Athene and Aphrodite, who were quarrelling 
fiercely. Zeus roared in his fury and decreed 
that Paris, a gay young shepherd of Mount 
Ida, should judge who was fairest and award 
the golden prize. He nodded his awful head 
and bade silver-winged Iris to hasten away 
with the apple. 

Amidst all the confusion the Three Sisters 
of Fate crept into the palace. Their ancient, 
tottering bodies were wrapped in long robes 

80 



SrORIES OF HELLAS 

of white that fell to their ankles, and on their 
feeble brows rested fillets of wool like the 
snowflakes. They held aloft their distaffs and 
spindles and spun out the threads, nipping 
and smoothing them with their yellowed 
teeth, while morsels of wool clung to their 
withered lips. And they chanted this weird 
prophecy: 

*'Born unto Thetis and Peleus shall be a son 
called Achilles; 
Dauntless in heart and in spirit, 
Fleeter of foot than the foot of the stag that 
runs in the wildwood, 
iVictor in onslaught, Achilles shall stand be- 
fore Troy like a god ; 
By his sword shall fall the Trojans as falls the 
ripened grain before the sickle, 
And by him a river shall run red with blood, 
And send blind, dead bodies into the whirling 
Hellespont, 
Achilles shall fall in his youth, slain by a 
prince of Troy, 

8ii 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

And on his tomb shall be sacrificed a young 

princess. 
Hasten, ye spindles, and run; gallop, ye 

thread-running spindles." 



AWARDING THE GOLDEN PRIZE 
OF BEAUTY 

FAR away in the Vale of Ida, where the 
mountains, glens, meadows and ledges hung 
rich in flowers, and the brooks fell through 
cloven, mossy rocks, Paris, the gay young 
shepherd, tended his sheep and his goats. 

Paris was a prince of Troy, the son of 
Priam and Hecuba. When he was a babe an 
oracle foretold that Paris would be the death 
of his family and bring terrible war on the 
City of Troy. For that reason the young 
prince was exposed to die in a dewy, dark 
ledge of Mount Ida. The child did not die, 

82 




JUNO 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

but grew up a beautiful but evil-hearted 
shepherd. 

One day Paris was leading a jet-black goat 
from a reedy well. A leopard skin drooped 
from his shoulders and his sunny hair clus- 
tered in curls around his temples. In his 
milk-white palm he held an apple of pure, 
fragrant gold that bore on its burnished rind 
the words, "For the most beautiful." 

That was the apple that the goddess of Dis- 
cord had thrown on the festal board at the 
wedding of Thetis and Peleus. The fruit had 
been given to Paris by silver-winged Iris, who 
told him how thundering Zeus had decreed 
that he should judge who was fairest among 
Athene, Hera and Aphrodite, and award the 
prize of beauty. 

It was deep mid-noon when Paris passed 
into a grotto overhung with ivy and clustering 
vines and garlanded with flowers and berries. 

83 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Suddenly a great golden cloud appeared, 
xiropping sweet-smelling dew, and drawn by a 
crested peacock that lit on the tree-tops abov»^. 
Hera, Athene and Aphrodite danced into the 
grotto. They were radiant as day and under 
their feet blossomed the violet and asphodel. 

Hera spake and her voice was clear as 
morning light. She begged Paris to award 
her the prize of beauty and offered him kingly 
power and fabulous riches. Paris held the 
fruit at arm's length and pondered her words, 
flattered at the thought of royal power and 
wealth. 

Standing apart, was blue-eyed Athene, lean- 
ing on her cold, brazen spear. She quietly 
asked Paris to judge her the fairest, offering 
to make him wise as some god if he did so. 
Paris mused on her words and gazed at the 
apple. 

Aphrodite drew nigh unto Paris. She was 

84 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

fresh as the foam of the sea, and her golden 
hair streamed about her white neck and 
shoulders. Sparkling with laughter, she 
leaned forward and whispered: "I will give 
thee the fairest and most loving wife in all 
Hellas." 

Paris raised his arm and laid the golden 
prize of beauty in the white hand of the god- 
dess. With angry eyes, and vowing vengeance 
on the Trojans, Hera and Athene entered the 
great golden cloud, and the crested peacock 
bore them away to Olympus. 

ACHILLES 

THIS is the poet's tale of the fulfillment of 
the prophecy spun out by the galloping spin- 
dles and chanted by the ancient, tottering Sis- 
ters of Fate at the wedding of Thetis and 
Peleus. 

85 



^-' 



\** STORIES OF HELLAS 



.'^ ^ 



A wee baby boy was bom in the royal palace 
of Thessaly, and that baby boy was the son 
of Thetis and Peleus, and he was named 
Achilles/^ 

Thetis was entranced with his sturdy young 
beauty, and she remembered the distaffs and 
galloping spindles that spun out the threads 
of his destiny and the oracle that chanted how 
he should be slain in his youth. Now, Thetis 
was herself a goddess and knew the secrets of 
the gods by which they made men immortal. 
She resolved to make Achilles immortal and 
save him from the fate foretold by the proph- 
ecy. Attended by silver-winged Iris and her 
blooming young sisters, she carried him down 
into the dread mansions of Hades, and there 
in the woeful darkness and gloom, held the 
laughing infant by his tiny pink heel while 
she dipped his white, dimpled body into the 
darksome waters of the great River Styx, 

86 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

thereby making all parts of his body which 
were touched by the waters immortal. In her 
gladness and haste, Thetis did not notice that 
the sacred waters touched not the pretty pink 
heel which she held in her hand. That heel 
ever remained mortal, and was the one part 
of her son's body whereby men might slay 
him. The gods made known to Thetis her 
terrible blunder, and told her Achilles should 
fall before Troy. 

The young hero was trained by Chiron, the 
Centaur, and grew up dauntless in heart and 
in spirit, and fleeter of foot than the foot of 
the stag that runs in the wildwood. Achilles 
was loved and sought after by gods and by 
men. 

Paris, the Trojan prince and the jolly young 
shepherd of Mount Ida, went over the land 
seeking the fairest and most loving wife in 
Hellas, promised by Aphrodite when he 

87 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

awarded her the golden prize of beauty out in 
the vine-clustered grotto. The cunning god- 
'dess of love and of beauty enticed him to 
Sparta. There he became a guest in the king's 
house and was soon madly in love with Queen 
Helen, the fairest and most loving woman in 
all Hellas. Aided by Aphrodite, Paris stole 
Sparta's beautiful queen and bore her away 
across the waters to his own royal palace in 
Troy, where he made her his bride. 

All Hellas was furious and wild at the bold- 
ness and theft of young Paris. Her kings, 
nobles and chieftains flew to their arms and 
their ships and waged desperate war on the 
Trojans — a war made brilliant and immor- 
tal by the gods and goddesses of Olympus, 
who drove their glistening war chariots back 
and forth between heaven and earth, inspir- 
ing and assisting their favorites to nobler bat- 
tle. Athene and Hera still remembered the 

88 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

golden apple, and espoused the cause of the 
Hellenes. Aphrodite and Mars lent powerful 
aid to the Trojans. 

For nine years the Greeks and Trojans had 
fought before the gates of Troy, but Achilles 
and Agamemnon, the commander of the Hel- 
lenic forces, had quarreled, and Achilles sat 
in his tent, fiercely angry and vowing that with 
his army he would sail away to Hellas and 
never more fight against the Trojans. Gods 
and Hellenes pleaded with him in vain, and 
all were plunged into despair, for Achilles 
and his soldiers were the mightiest army 
among the Hellenes. 

The Trojans were burning the ships of Hel- 
las. Achilles saw the smoke and the flames 
and his heart was so filled with anguish that 
he loaned his armor, a gift of the gods, to his 
friend Patroclus, who led forth the wonderful 
army of Achilles to fight the Trojans. Pa- 

89 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

troclus was killed by Hector, the brother of 
Paris, and the greatest of all Trojan princes. 
Hector kept the armor of Achilles which had 
been a gift of the gods. 

The sad tale was told to Achilles as he sat 
in his camp, and he was wild with the sud- 
den horror and grief. He cast himself on the 
ground, and, groaning aloud, he rolled and 
grovelled in the dust, beating his breast, rend- 
ing his purple garments and tearing his golden 
hair. 

All bathed in tears, Thetis flew to her son, 
and Achilles cried aloud when he saw her, 
*'Ah, goddess mother, Patroclus is slain; he 
whom I loved above all others of mankind, 
and Hector has those glorious arms that were 
bestowed upon me by the gods. I, Achilles, 
hate to live, and I blush to walk among men 
until I have killed proud Hector who slew 
my best friend." 

90 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

And the goddess said : "Ah, my son, when 
thou killest Hector, then thou, too, shall die." 

"Let Hector die, and I die, too," cried 
Achilles, "for did not Patroclus fall on the 
plain, wishing in vain for my aid?" 

Thetis fell on her knees. "My son, thou 
canst not go forth to fight the Trojans with- 
out armor and sword. Stay but a while, and 
I will flee to the forge of Hephaestus, and will 
return at dawn with armor and sword more 
magnificent than that of the gods." 

The silver-footed dame reached the far- 
beaming mansion in Mount Aetna, where she 
found the lame blacksmith bathed in sweat 
and working amid the fires of his forges. She 
begged the artist-god to fashion an armor 
and sword wherewith her son might fight the 
Trojans. Hephaestus returned to his fires 
and his forges, and from rarest metals he 
made the most wonderful armor ever worn by 

91! 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

god or by man, and laid them down at the feet 
of Thetis. 

As the sun horses galloped through the gates 
of the morning, Thetis bore the glorious bur- 
den of arms to Achilles. The dauntless hero 
clothed himself in the radiant armor and ap- 
peared like a shining god before the gates of 
Troy. At the sight of him, the Trojans trem- 
bled and gave way to fear, while the Hellenes, 
catching one glance of his eye, disdained to 
flee, and were inspired with new hope and 
courage. 

Achilles was in very truth a victor in on- 
slaught, and by his sword fell the Trojans as 
falls the ripened grain before the gleaming 
sickle. The river ran red with the blood and 
sent the dead bodies into the whirls of the Hel- 
lespont. 

Then they met — Achilles and Hector. The 
dreadful plumage of Achilles nodded on his 

92 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

helmet, his sword glittered with trembling 
rays of light, the armor on his breast shown 
with beamy splendor and he bore his marvel- 
ous shield — all wrought by the lame god of 
Mount Aetna. Young Hector was clad in rich 
mail — a gift of the gods — ^which he had so 
lately taken from the dead body of Patroclus, 
the friend of Achilles. Hector and Achilles 
fought like infuriated gods till Hector fell 
dead on the plains. 

Achilles saw and loved the young princess 
of Troy, and the sister of Paris and Hector. 
He sought her in marriage, and they were 
wedded outside of the gates of the city; when, 
lo! Paris, the young shepherd prince who stole 
the fair Helen and caused all the terrible war- 
fare, shot a poisoned arrow into the heel of 
Achilles, the one part of his body that was 
not touched by the sacred waters of the Styx. 
Thus Achilles fell in his youth, slain by a 

93 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

prince of Troy, and on his tomb was sacrificed 
the young princess, his bride, as foretold by 
the thread-running spindles. 

THE TALE OF THE WOODEN 
HORSE 

HECTOR and Achilles were slain. Paris, 
the gay young abductor, was dead, killed by 
one of the arrows which Heracles had pois- 
oned by dipping it into the blood of the 
Hydra. Still the Hellenes and Trojans were 
fighting before the walls of Troy. The Hel- 
lenes were weary of the fighting and were 
plunged into the blackest despair. 

But there was one among them whose heart 
was great within him, and his wisdom and 
cunning were plotting furiously against the 
Trojans. That renowned warrior was Odys- 
seus, or Ulysses, king of Ithaca, who wore the 
armor of Achilles that was forged by Heph- 

94 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

aestus, the blacksmith god. The lovely, weep- 
ing Thetis had taken the burden of arms into 
the camp of the Hellenes to be given to the 
greatest hero of Hellas. Because of his wis- 
dom and cunning skill, Odysseus, the re- 
nowned warrior and the mighty king of Itha- 
ca, was clothed in the magnificent splendor of 
that armor. His crafty wisdom had matched 
itself with the Trojans, and soon on the plains 
of Troy stood a massive wooden horse, which 
was builded by the Hellenes. They then 
burned all their booths and sailed away in 
their well-decked ships as if they were sailing 
away for ever. But there in the Meeting Stead 
of the Trojans, fast-locked in the wooden 
horse, sat Odysseus and fifty brave Hellenes. 
The city gates flew open and the Trojans 
poured out on the plains, rejoicing to see the 
smoke of the burning booths and their waters 
cleared of the hated ships of the Hellenes. 

95 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

There stood the wooden horse, and all were 
curious about it. Some of them wished to 
cleave the hollow wood with their swords, 
while others were clamoring to throw it into 
the sea ; but there were some among them who 
would give it to the gods as a gift. 

A priest of Poseidon stood near and cried 
out that it was some awful fraud of the Hel- 
lenes, and urged all to beware. When, lo! 
two terrible serpents came up from the sea 
and crawled over the land to the spot where 
the priest of Poseidon stood with his two 
young sons. The hissing vipers coiled round 
their bodies and strangled the priest and his 
sons in their poisonous folds. A wonderment 
of fear and awe swept over the Trojans. Was 
not that wooden horse sacred to the gods, and 
were not those serpents their awful vengeance? 

With reverent hands they dragged the horse 
that was heavy with the Hellenes into the 

96 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

most sacred precinct of their city, and the day 
was spent in triumphant processions, feasts 
and revels, and in offering prayers and sacri- 
fices. 

In the deep of the night, when the city lay 
sleeping, the well-decked ships of the Hellenes 
went sailing back to Troy, the ponderous 
gates were opened, and Odysseus and his fifty 
brave fellows stepped forth from the wooden 
horse. 

Artemis, looking down from her moon car, 
saw the men of Troy all put to the sword, and 
she saw the smoke and the glow of fire which 
was burning their Holy Burg to ashes. 

THE ADVENTURE OF ODYSSEUS IN 
THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS 

THE minstrels sang a stirring song of the ad- 
venture of Odysseus in the land of the Cyclops. 
After the city of Troy was wasted with war, 

97 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the many chieftains of Hellas who survived 
the sea and the battle were safe again in their 
homelands. But Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, 
with his vessels and his seamen, was exploring 
all the waters searching for his kingdom, and 
was enduring all the horrors that were on the 
land and sea. 

They came to the land of the Cyclops, the 
one-eyed men whom Heaven had cast into 
Tartarus and Zeus had brought forth to 
Olympus. For the lightnings and the thun- 
derbolts, and for their warring against the 
Titans, Zeus had given the Cyclops that land, 
away in the seas, wherein they might live for- 
ever and be mighty shepherds of numberless 
flocks. There in the land of the Cyclops all 
things grew unsown and untilled. The vines 
bore fruit which was filled with ruddy wine, 
and barley and wheat waxed thick and golden. 
Among the crags and high mountains, each in 

98 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

his cave of rocks, dwelt the Cyclops. Woody 
was their island, and it had no beaten paths 
of men to scare their flocks of goats that 
wended their way through the thickets and 
browsed over the flowering hilltops. 

iWhen they drew nigh to the island, Odys- 
seus and his men beached their ships and 
struck their sails upon a near-by strand. And , 
when the rosy dawn maiden swept through 
the burnished gates, Odysseus uprose from the 
salt-sea sands and thus addressed his men: 
"Now, my trusty fellows, ye shall stay behind 
while I take my ship and my shipmen and 
sail to the woody island to learn what sort of 
folk the islanders may be." 

Soon the oars of his sea-men were beating 
the rough sea waves, and when they were hard 
by the island they saw a wide-mouthed cavern 
that was high and covered with bay trees, 
while all around were flocks of goats and 

99 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sheep. Among the pines and the oak trees 
lay the Cyclops who was herding all those 
flocks. So mighty and marvelous was the Cy- 
clops that he looked not like a shepherd, but 
like a wooded crag of the mountains. 

Then Odysseus bade his trusty seamen to 
watch and bide by the ship while he, with 
twelve of the best of his men, went ashore. He 
carried a goatskin filled with black, sweet 
wine, a gift of a priest of Apollo. Quickly 
they made their way to the Wide-mouthed 
cavern, and as they went therein they noted 
all things about them. Baskets were heaped 
and heavy with cheese, and the folds were 
thronged with fatted lambs and with kids. 
They offered to their gods and ate of the 
cheese, then sat themselves down to await the 
Cyclops' coming. 

He came herding his sheep and carrying a 
heavy load of firewood, which he cast down 

lOO 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

with such a clatter that Odysseus and his men 
withdrew deep into the crannied cavern. The 
one-eyed shepherd drove in his sheep and his 
goats for the milking, and he lifted and set in 
the door of his hall a stone that was as big 
as a mountain. Now he milked his bleating 
goats and his ewes. Dividing the foaming 
white milk, he curdled the half of it and laid 
the curds in the wicker presses; half of the 
milk he stood in the jars close at hand, ready 
for his drinking at supper. 

Seeing Odysseus and his men hiding there 
in the crannies, the Cyclops bellowed out: 
'Why are ye here, ye strangers from over the 
watery way? Are ye about some business, or 
are ye thieves a-faring here in my cave?" 

So deep was his awful voice, and so mon- 
strous was the Cyclops, that the hearts of those 
brave fellows beat almost aloud in their quak- 
ing, and they shrank deeper into the crannies. 

lOI 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

But Odysseus, the hero, answered him with 
daring: '^Ay, sir, we are men of Hellas, and 
we sailed away from Troy, seeking our homes 
and our homelands. But the will of mighty 
Zeus sent all the winds of the sea to drive us 
about the waters. As suppliants now to thy 
cave have we come, hoping that as thou fear- 
est the gods, thou shalt give us the lawful 
meed of the guest folk." 

From a pitiless heart he answered him, "O, 
stranger, thou art a fool if thou thinkest that 
a Cyclops will spare thee or thy fellows a whit 
for the sake of great Zeus and his anger. 
But where left ye your well-fashioned ship? 
Speak out that I may know." 

Odysseus answered him in words that were 
guileful: "Poseidon, the earthshaker, de- 
stroyed our ship and cast it against the crags 
of thy island, and these men and I are all who 
are left of the noble crew." 

102 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

The Cyclops made never an answer, but he 
clutched two of the trusty fellows who were 
trembling there in the crannies and dashed 
them on the ground, and as a lion bred in the 
mountains, he tore them limb from limb and 
ate them outright, swallowing, as he did so, the 
half of his foaming white milk. 

Now, when the Cyclops had taken his fill 
of milk and the flesh of men he stretched him- 
self in his cavern to sleep, amidst his flocks of 
sheep and goats. Odysseus drew his whetted 
blade to thrust it through his heart, but he 
thought of the mountain of stone in the door- 
way, and stayed his sword in his hand. 

The Cyclops was up with the rose-fingered 
dawn, toiling and working about his cavern 
and milking his goats and sheep. When his 
labors were ended, he clutched two more of 
the fellows and broke his morning fast. He 
rolled the mountain of stone from the door- 

103 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

way; whooping loudly, he drove his flocks out 
of the den and slipped back the stone into the 
entrance. Odysseus and eight of his men were 
left alone, devising ill against the Cyclops. 

Against the fold of the Cyclops was a fresh- 
ly cut club of green olive. So huge was it 
that it seemed a mast of some broad ship of the 
ocean. Pointing to the olive, Odysseus spoke 
to his men: "Ho, my fellows! this very night 
while the Cyclops lies sleeping, we will take 
a bar of the olive club, heat it glowing hot, 
thrust it into the one eye of his forehead, and 
put the one eye out." Drawing nigh to the 
club, Odysseus cut off a fathom's length and 
gave it to his fellows, bidding them pare and 
smooth it. He sharpened the end and hid it 
among the rubbish which was strewn about 
the den. The men cast lots and chose four 
fellows with heart and daring to raise the bar 
with Odysseus and do the mighty deed. 

104 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

Evening came, and with it the Cyclops. 
Driving all his fatted beasts into the den, he 
walled up the doorway and sat again to his 
milking. When his work was done in order, 
he clutched two more of the fellows and ate 
them for his supper. 

Odysseus held an ivy cup of the black, sweet 
wine in his hand, and drawing nigh he spoke 
to the Cyclops: "Since ye have eaten thq 
flesh of my men, O Cyclops, now take and 
drink my wine." He took it and drank and 
begged the sweet stuff again. "Come and give 
me the drink and straightway tell me thy 
name." 

Odysseus gave him the wine again and 
again, and when the monster was drunken, the 
cunning hero answered, "My father and my 
mother and all of my folk call me ^Noman,' 
for *Noman' is my name." 

The Cyclops said, "Noman shall I eat last 

105 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

of all his fellows here," and falling backward, 
he soon was fast asleep. 

Odysseus and his four men fetched the bar 
of olive and heated it glowing hot. Raising 
it aloft, they thrust the burning end into the 
eye of the Cyclops and bored and twisted it 
about. Yelling with pain, the Cyclops tore 
from out his burning eye the sharpened shaft 
of olive and flung it across the cavern. 

He yelled and whooped so loudly that his 
brother Cyclops heard and flocked about his 
den, crying, ''O brother, what thing grieves 
thee that thou criest aloud in the night?" 

And the raging Cyclops made answer: "O 
brothers, Noman is in my den, and Noman 
slayeth me." 

From without his brothers spoke: '^Brother, 
if thou art all alone and no man slayeth thee, 
it must be great Zeus who sendeth the awful 
ill. So put up a prayer to Poseidon, our 

1 06 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

mighty king." And they went away to their 
caverns. 

Moaning aloud, the Cyclops groped about 
and removed the stone from the doorway. 
With his hands stretched out, he sat through 
the night in the entrance. 

When the rose-fingered Dawn appeared, he 
sent forth from his den all of his fatted flocks 
with the ewes and his goats unmilked. Weary 
with pain and sorrow, the Cyclops groped his 
hands over all the beasts to see if the men 
were among them. 

A little apart from the rock den, Odysseus 
and his four men unloosed themselves from 
under the fairest rams of the flock. Exultant 
with joy, Odysseus cried aloud, "O, Cyclops, 
if any shall ask thee who hath blinded thine 
eye, then shalt thou say it was Odysseus, the 
king of Ithaca, who was sailing away from 
Troy in search of his home and his homeland." 



THE HEROIC OR HOMERIC 

AGE 



THE DIVINE HOMER 

THE story of the wrath of Achilles, his ter- 
rible sorrow for Patroclus, the forging of the 
wonderful armor by Hephaestus, the fighting 
of Achilles before Troy and the slaying of 
Hector, is told in a grand, stately poem or 
book called the Iliad. The tale of the wooden 
horse and the story of the wanderings and re- 
turn of Odysseus are beautifully narrated in 
the Odyssey. 

The people of Hellas and the early scholars 
of Europe and of our own land believed and 
taught that these exquisite poems were made 
up of the songs and ballads recited by Homer, 
who was one of the many wandering minstrels. 
They said that Homer was old and blind and 
had once been a schoolmaster in Smyrna, a 

III 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Greek city of Asia Minor. For years he wan- 
idered over Hellas, singing his sublime lays 
and verses to the music of his lyre. He was 
passionately loved by the children, and legend 
says that he died out on an isle of the sea from 
an illness brought on by worry at not being 
able to solve a puzzle given to him by some 
fishermen's children. Long after he was dead, 
seven wealthy cities of Hellas hotly contended 
for the honor of having been his birthplace. 
But most of the writers agreed that he w^as 
born in Smyrna over in Asia Minor. 

The eminent scholars of the day are saying 
that there was no blind bard named Homer. 
They say that by Homer is meant any one of 
the wandering minstrels of those three or four 
centuries of song who sang of the wrath, sor- 
row and fighting of Achilles, and of the 
wooden horse, and the wanderings and return 
of Odysseus. Centuries later a ruler of Athens 








■I 



l&si^-^t 



M^^iiJi^^^^*'^!:^:^^^ 



THE DIVINE HOMER 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

ordered those songs to be collected and com- 
mitted to writing. Thus were given to the 
world the Iliad and Odyssey, two glorious 
poems that are the masterpieces of all litera- 
ture. 

The Iliad is the greater of the poems, and 
so well-beloved was it by the Hellenes that 
every schoolboy could recite full pages of the 
soul-stirring lines. It is said that Alexander 
the Great had an elegant copy of the poem 
which he carried in a jewelled casket and slept 
with it under his pillow. 

The Iliad is fragrant with the dewey fresh- 
ness of the springtime of earth. Like a pol- 
ished mirror, the poem reflects the life and 
manners of that age and portrays the world 
of the gods with as much vividness and charm 
as if Homer had dipped his brush in the col- 
ors of sunset and painted great, living pictures. 

Despite all the brilliant talk of our modern 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

scholars, we love to think of the divine Homer 
as the blind old poet, wandering about or sit- 
ting on a silver-studded throne in some palace, 
singing theMeeds of gods and of men to the 
notes of his sweet-toned lyre. 

THE WOMEN OF HELLAS 

THOSE three or four centuries of wander- 
ing bards and fabulous heroes are known in 
history as the Heroic Age of Hellas, and 
sometimes they are called the Homeric Age 
in honor of the blind old Homer. 

During that time the many kingdoms of 
Hellas were a-glitter with palaces which were 
the homes of kings, nobles and warriors. 
Within the walled courts and great glisten- 
ing gates happy children danced in the sun- 
shine and roamed through the beautiful gar- 
dens, while the queens, dames and maidens 

1114 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

spent joyous days among their slaves spin- 
ning, weaving and embroidering. Once the 
glorious Helen wrought a robe that shone like 
a star and pictured in exquisite needlework 
the achievements of the Greeks and Trojans. 
She gave the shining garment to Telemachus, 
the son of Odysseus, bidding him let it lie in 
the house of his mother for his bride to wear 
in the hour of her wedding. The women's 
apartments of the palaces were ever alive with 
labor and the high-born mothers and daugh- 
ters were as busy and helpful as the hand- 
maidens who flitted about them. They car- 
ried pitchers of water from the fountains, and 
were often seen washing their robes in the 
washing-wells down by the seashore. 

In the Odyssey Homer tells a charming tale 
of a princess, who, with her maidens, was go- 
ing down to the river to do the family wash- 
ing. Her father, the king, bade the chariot 

115 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

be made ready, the princess piled up the soiled 
raiment, and the queen mother put in a basket 
of pleasing meats and dainties. 

"Then the damsel took up the mule-whip, and 
hand to the bright reins laid. 
And smote the mules to be going, and the 
mules much clatter made." 

When they reached the river they loosed the 
mules, and, leaving them to browse on the 
tender grass close by, the princess and her 
hand-maidens dipped the garments and 
cleansed them and spread them on the salt- 
sea beach. While the clothes were drying in 
the sunbeams the pretty damsels bathed in 
the flowing waters and ate their dinners by the 
river side. 

Those far-away days were the Golden 
Age for the lovely dames, fair ladies and 
sweet maids of Hellas. At no other time did 
they play so great a part in Hellenic history. 

ii6 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

They inspired poets to song and warriors to 
heroic battle. We know that when Helen was 
stolen away from Sparta the Hellenes rushed 
to arms and fought for ten long, weary years 
before the gates of Troy, trying to recover the 
beauty. That age was their one period of so- 
cial life. Then the young men and young 
maidens of Hellas danced together at feasts, 
tripping to light airs played on the lute. The 
maidens wore white linen robes, lacy veils and 
wreaths of flowers. The youths had tunics on 
and carried short golden swords. 

Through the labor of slaves the kingdoms 
of Hellas were yielding their wealth to the 
kings, nobles and warriors, who spent most of 
their time doing warlike deeds or uttering 
words of wisdom and eloquence. And, will 
you believe it, dear children, those same kings, 
nobles and warriors spent many hours with 
their young men and boys, running, leaping 

117 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and jumping to make them fleet of foot and 
mighty in battle. Those old Greeks loved 
beauty, strength and heroism, but hated ugli- 
ness, weakness and cowardice. With them to 
be handsome, strong and brave was to be good. 
To be bad was to be a coward and a weakling. 

There were no laws but those of custom, 
and they had no courts of justice. A just man 
of that age was one who did as other good 
men. They were often unjust and cruel, but 
we must not blame them too harshly, for they 
lived centuries before the Christ brought in 
the gospel of love and peace, and they knew 
nothing of our Golden Rule of kindness. Their 
gods were not true, living ones. They were 
only fanciful creatures created by poets, and 
they had evil ways of their own which they 
taught to the sons of men. 

When those Hellenes took a city they put 
all the men to the sword and made slaves of 

[ii8 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the women and children. Thus, among the 
slaves of Hellas were men and women of gen- 
tle breeding, who had once been princes, 
queens and daughters of royal households. 
After the fall of Troy the Trojan women, and 
even the mother of Paris and Hector, were 
made captives and carried away to ply the 
loom and fetch water from the fountains of 
the Hellenes. 

The years of that age as well as those of the 
Tribal Age went by all uncounted, for those 
old Hellenes knew not how to count the flight 
of time. They kept no records and wrote no 
histories. There were no books of any kind 
in all that land. But they had the songs of 
the poets. They builded them silver-studded 
thrones in the halls of their palaces and wel- 
comed them with feasting and mirth. The 
poets' songs, tales and legends were the Hel- 
lenes' books and histories, and they were the 

119 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

greatest forces in the forming of their ideas 
of earth, religion, art and society. We call 
those songs, legends and tales, the Greek 
Myths, or Mythology, and through them we 
learn much of the lost ancient splendor of 
Heroic or Homeric Hellas. 



AN INTERLUDE OF INTER- 
ESTING STORIES 



THE HELLENES* IDEA OF EARTH 

THE Hellenes' ideas of earth were those of 
poesy and fancy. They were gleaned from the 
songs of their minstrels and their own lively 
imaginations. 

To the Hellenes, the wide-wayed earth was 
flat and round, and encircled by River Ocean, 
a deep, peaceful stream from which all wa- 
ters flowed. In the midst of the earth blos- 
somed gay, smiling Hellas, and Mount Olym- 
pus was the center of all. 

Far under the earth were the dread man- 
sions of Hades, or Pluto, and his beautiful, 
earth-stolen bride, Persephone. Through 
those mansions flowed the great River Styx, 
by whose darksome waters the gods swore their 

123 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

most sacred oaths. Farther down was murky 
HTartarus, the abode of the wicked. The Hel- 
lenes loved the sunlight, and, Oh, how they 
hated and shunned these gloomy regions! 

To the westward, on the farthermost bor- 
ders of River Ocean, were the beautiful Isles 
of the Blessed — the Heaven of the Hellenes. 
There the heroes of earth and the souls of the 
good and the pure sang and flitted through 
one long day of eternal sunshine and bliss. 

On the southern borders of the encircling 
waters dwelt the Ethiopians — a joyous and 
happy race of immortals, who spent all their 
days in gladsome delights and often feasted 
the gods. 

Far away north, in a sun-bright deep nearby 
the track of the stars, the Hyperboreans lived 
their care-free eternal life. So close was their 
realm to the blue-vaulted skies that the star- 
music floated down to them on the pale beams 

,124 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

of night, and the moon car swung low as it 
passed over their land. 

The eastern skies were the gates of morning. 
They were flung open by the rosy dawn 
maiden, Eos or Aurora, who sped through the 
sky dropping flowers and dewey freshness 
over the earth. The great burnished sun car 
flashed through the gates drawn by snorting 
horses of flame, and the people of Hellas 
cried: "Awake! 'Tis the sunrise!" Driven 
by Helios, and attended by Love, the glow- 
ing young Hours and the Graces, the horses 
galloped madly across the sky, flooding the 
earth with sunlight. At night they went down 
into the western seas, where a golden boat car- 
ried them back to the sun's eastern palace to 
rest from their panting labors. 

Then Artemis bathed in River Ocean, clad 
herself in her gleaming garments, and mount- 
ing her moon car, she guided the milk-white 

,12^ 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

steeds through the stars and the night, while a 
soft moonlight suffused heaven and earth like 
a mist of ethereal music. 

Those were the joyous young days of Hel- 
las, the springtime of life and of fancy. Then 
the Muses danced on Mount Helicon and sang 
lovely songs of earth. They went through the 
nights teaching their songs to the poets. Sea- 
maids sang dulcet songs as they rode through 
the waves seated on dolphins' backs, and the 
pipes-o' Pan were heard in the evening, ming- 
ling their notes with the honey-sweet songs of 
the nightingales. 



HOW THE POETS MADE THE RE- 
LIGION OF HELLAS 

IN the wild tribal days of the Hellenes they 
had worshipped all things in nature — the sun, 
moon, stars, earth, sea and sky — and had of- 

126 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

fered their prayers and their sacrifices out in 
the sunlit forests. But as they grew and pro- 
gressed through the centuries, and felt the 
thrill and joy of all life about them, they 
turned from that senseless worship of nature 
and mere nameless spirits, and yearned for 
some great living god. 

If only those Hellenes could have met the 
Hebrews and heard their sweet stories of the 
great living God of Israel, how changed 
would have been their lives and history! 

But, no ; they met only the pagan folk of the 
Orient, and heard only the pagan songs of 
their own wandering poets. And the yearn- 
ing, worshipful Hellenes believed and re- 
joiced in the songs of their minstrels. To 
them they were glorious gospel. They loved 
all the songs of the gods and the goddesses 
who dwelt low on the earth, and deep down 
in the sea, but best of all they loved the songs 

11 27 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

that told of great Zeus and his mighty com- 
pany who dwelt high on Olympus. They loved 
all the gods and goddesses, and thought of 
them as dear, loving friends. Their own ar- 
dent fancies and passionate love for the beau- 
tiful enriched the songs of the poets with 
many charming stories. 

Soon all Hellas was worshipping the gods of 
the poets, building them temples, and offering 
them prayers and sacrifices. 

When lovely, flower-jeweled Hellas was 
fragrant with ripening grain, and when fruit 
hung luscious in orchards, the Hellenes re- 
joiced and sang hymns to Demeter or Ceres, 
the fair-tressed goddess of earth, who sent the 
grains, fruit and flowers. 

They planted their vineyards and Dionysus 

or Bacchus, the jolly young god of wine and of 

revels, caused the clustering vines to yield rich 

glowing vintage. As they pressed out the 

^ [1 28 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

purpling wine from the grapes, the Hellenes 
sang praises to lively Dionysus, who, draped 
all in laurel and ivy, lived in the woodlands, 
and rode on the backs of lynxes, tigers, and 
panthers. 

Triton blew his wreathed horn, and clouds, 
mists, and storm-crested billows appeared far 
out at sea. Then the Hellenes knew the great 
sea god was foaming and scudding over the 
waves, drawn by his famous winged horses. 
And they sang lovely songs to Poseidon or 
Neptune, the great earth-shaker, and god of 
the sea and water, who dwelt with his beauti- 
ful wife and children in a dazzling sea palace. 

The blacksmiths and craftsmen of Hellas 
who bent stubborn steel, and hardened gleam- 
ing armor, sang rousing hymns to Hephaestus 
or Vulcan, the god of fire, and himself a lame 
blacksmith and forger of thunderbolts, in the 
heart of roaring, blazing Mount Aetna. Thej^ 

[129 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sang funny songs of how Hephaestus, the son 
of great Zeus and Hera, had been kicked out 
of heaven by his thundering father, and was a 
long summer's day falling to earth. 



ZEUS AND HIS WONDERFUL 
COMPANY 

FAR away on the summit of lofty Mount 
Olympus, in a lovely, laughing abode of sun- 
shine and flowers, dwelt great Zeus and his 
shining company of gods and goddesses. 
There they lived in their own starry palaces, 
made by the lame god Hephaestus and they 
spent many long happy hours in feasting and 
song. But often they left the shining courts 
of Olympus and sped through the rosy cloud 
gates, that were guarded by the glowing 
young Hours, down to earth on their missions 
of frolic, war, mercy, or vengeance. 

130 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

High over all in that laughing, lovely 
abode, was the sumptuous, glittering palace of 
great, thundering Zeus, the father of gods and 
of men. In the spacious halls of his palace 
the gods held wonderful councils or Agoras to 
decide all matters in heaven and earth. 

How splendid and glorious was great, thun- 
dering Zeus, the father of gods and of men! 
He made all the gods and Olympus tremble at 
the awful, divine nod of his head; and he 
flashed forth the lightnings and hurtled the 
thunderbolts through the deep skies. Once the 
great Thunderer boasted that all the gods and 
all the men of earth pulling together could not 
budge him, but that he could stretch forth his 
hand and pull gods, men, sea, and earth to 
himself and suspend all with one golden cord 
from Mount Olympus. The eagle, tall trees 
and mountain tops were sacred to Zeus. He 
rode between heaven and earth in a chariot, 

(131 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

drawn by horses with glow^ing brass hoofs and 
manes of pure curling gold. 

Hera, or Juno, was the bride of great Zeus, 
and the goddess of heaven, and of women and 
marriage. She was white-armed, and mag- 
nificent — but oh, so very bad mannered! 
She never returned good for evil, and often 
quarreled and fought with great, thundering 
Zeus. Once Zeus hung her up in the sky, with 
golden anvils swuncr on her gleaming white 
ankles, and handcuffs of gold on her delicate 
wrists. Hephaestus ran to the aid of his mother 
and Zeus kicked him off Mount Olympus. 
You see, the lovely ox-eyed lady was very re- 
nowned throughout Hellas. The peacock and 
cow, the lily, pomegranite and willow were 
sacred to her beautiful highness. Hera rode 
between earth and heaven in a glittering char- 
iot drawn by prancing steeds that fed on lotus 
and ambrosia, and sometimes she sped through 

132 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the air in a golden cloud drawn by crested 
peacocks. 

Iris was the lovely winged messenger of 
Hera, and the rainbow was the bright path 
from earth to heaven over which the young 
goddess sped. 

Ares, or Mars, was the son of Zeus and 
Hera, and the fierce god of war and battle. He 
hated peace and wisdom, and loved battle, 
carnage and bloodshed. He loved the vulture 
that fed on the slain, and the reeking, bloody 
sword and spear. How fearfully splendid was 
Ares in battle! Clad all in shining armor and 
great, waving war plumes, he brandished his 
heavy lance and shouted defiance. But Ares 
was hated by gods and by men. 

Hebe was the blooming young daughter of 
Zeus and Hera, and the gay, winsome goddess 
of youth. All bubbling with grace and dimp- 
ling with laughter, sweet Hebe mixed the nec- 

133 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

tar and ambrosia and passed it among all the 
guests at their banquets and parties. But once 
charming Hebe met young Heracles, a hero 
of earth, who could pick up a lion and stran- 
gle it in his big brawny arms. The goddess 
and hero straightway fell in love and were 
married, just as men and maidens have done 
in all times and all places. Thus blooming 
Hebe left the halls of great Zeus, left her 
urns of nectar and ambrosia and went with her 
dear lord and master to live in their own starry 
palace. 

Then mighty Zeus sent his flaming eagle 
down to a flowering meadow of earth where 
the beautiful, golden-haired Ganymede was 
gathering flowers by the handful. The eagle 
bore the child skyward up to the courts of 
Olympus, there to live with the immortals and 
be cup-bearer in the halls of great Zeus. 

Once great Zeus had a fierce, mighty head- 

134 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

ache. His groans and cries shook all heaven 
and earth. He sent to Mount Aetna for He- 
phaestus to leave his fires and anvils and take 
his big axe to Olympus and cleave open his 
aching head. Quick as thought the lame god 
was by the side of his father, and with one 
mighty blow obeyed his command. Out 
sprang blue-eyed Athena, full-grown and 
clothed in bright armor. She was singing a 
terrible war song of victory. All Olympus sang 
and rejoiced while the head of great Zeus 
closed, and a radiant light shone over sea and 
land. Zeus loved Athena so dearly that he 
wanted her glories to be as great as his own, 
so he gave her the divine right to nod her 
beauteous head whenever she spoke. The 
olive tree, cock, serpent and owl were sacred 
to her. Athena was goddess of war and of wis- 
dom, and she loved and protected the cities. It 
was the blue-eyed war goddess, Athena, who 

ii35 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

taught all the beautiful queens, lovely dames 
and young maidens of Hellenes the arts of 
spinning and weaving. With the help of the 
Graces she spun and wove all the robes of the 
goddesses and her own radiant veil, that was 
more dazzling than light. Often Athena cast 
aside her wonderful veil and put on the dread 
armor of Zeus with its massy-plumed helmet, 
mounted the war chariot and whirled off to 
battle. 

Hestia, or Vesta, was the calm, stately god- 
dess of fire and kept the homes of men pure 
and holy. Every city and state kept a sacred 
fire burning before her dear shrine. Every 
new home and new colony had its fire lighted 
from her sacred hearth. Once great Zeus 
offered her any gift she might choose. She 
chose never to marry and to have the first 
offerings at all of the sacrifices. Hestia was 
loved dearly by gods and by men, and Zeus 

1136 




ZEUS 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

gave her the honored seat in the agora, and the 
choicest morsels at the banquet. 

Hermes, or Mercury, was the son of thun- 
dering Zeus and was born in a cool, fragrant 
grotto in the shadowy heart of Arcadia. From 
the first he was a cunning thief, a charming 
scamp and a rascal. Hermes was born in the 
rosy dawn of the morning, and at midday he 
saw a fat, lazy tortoise waddling along and 
eating rich grass outside. The babe leaped 
from his cradle, ran out of the grotto, snatched 
up the tortoise and took it inside. Then he 
choked it and scooped out the soft flesh with 
a piece of gray iron and fashioned a sweet- 
toned lyre from its speckled shell and some 
reeds. In the evening of that day, he was very 
hungry and went over the hills and stole fifty 
of Apollo's fat cattle and all by himself had a 
sacrifice and feast. Later he gave his beauti- 
ful lyre to Apollo for the cattle he stole, and 

137 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the sly rogue so won Apollo's heart that he 
laughed at it all and then and there gave 
Hermes a three-pointed, golden wand, that 
could settle all quarrels and troubles. Hermes 
saw two snakes quarreling close by, and thrust 
his wand between them. They at once twined 
lovingly and peacefully around it, and Her- 
mes bade them stay there for ever. The gods 
of Olympus gave him a winged cap and 
winged sandals and Zeus made him the fleet 
messenger of the gods. With his snake-en- 
twined wand, his cap and his sandals, Hermes 
sped through the air faster than shoot the hail 
stones. It was jolly young Hermes who made 
the beds of the gods, and swept out their halls 
after their feasts and agoras. 

Aphrodite or Venus was the goddess of love 
and of beauty, and was born of the soft, 
silver foam of the sea. The west wind found 
her in a joyous blue sea-wave and wafted her 

138 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

in a sea-pearl down to the island of Cy- 
prus. When the lily maid touched the shore, 
beautiful flowers sprang up and kissed her 
rosy-white feet, and the sunbeams played 
among her dimples and smiles. The Hours 
and Graces were waiting to welcome her, 
and were filled with love and delight when 
they saw her. They clad her about in daz- 
zling raiment, adorned her white neck with 
chains of gold, and wreathed her young head 
with roses and myrtle. They led her to Mount 
Olympus and all the gods were in rapture 
about her. Among the flowers and fountains 
they crowned her the goddess of love and of 
beauty and every young god prayed mighty 
Zeus to give him Aphrodite for his own wed- 
ded wife. Zeus gave the winsome young god- 
dess to the horrid, lame blacksmith god, 
Hephaestus, who built her a glittering, star- 
like palace. Laughter-loving Aphrodite loved 

H39 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

swans, sparrows, doves, and dolphins, and 
oh, how she loved her own little son, Eros, 
or Cupid, the god of love, and a pretty, fat 
little fellow, full of mischief, who carried a 
silver bow and arrows and had tiny silver 
wings. Aphrodite, Eros, and the Graces had 
great sport roaming through the groves and 
meadows and pelting each other with flowers 
and with dew. 

Leto, or Latona, was the queenly goddess 
of night. Draped in billowy masses of star- 
studded blackness, she roamed through the 
meadows of earth and Olympus, boasting that 
she was the mother of glorious children — 
Prince Apollo and Artemis, the Archer 
Huntress. 

Apollo, the son of Leto, was born on the 
island of Delos. Themis touched his baby 
lips with nectar and sweet ambrosia. Lo! 
he was a babe no longer but a full-grown, 

140 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

golden-haired god, splendid and shining. He 
went over the wide ways of earth and Delos 
blossomed with gold as blossoms a hillside 
with flowers. Fleet as thought he went from 
earth to Olympus and delighted the hearts of 
the gods with his grace and his golden beauty. 
Mighty Zeus made Apollo the god of light, 
poetry and music, and bade him make known 
his wisdom and counsel among men. Apollo 
was ever a blessing to earth and from his great 
heart he poured out life, light and music. 
Clad in flowing robes embroidered with gold, 
and armed with a golden bow and a quiver of 
golden arrows, the beautiful laurel-crowned 
god went harping and singing over the earth. 
His lyre was the one that Hermes had fash- 
ioned from the reeds and the speckled shell of 
the tortoise, but the touch of Apollo had 
turned it to gold, and it made the sweetest 
music on earth or Olympus. 

141 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Artemis, or Diana, was the twin sister of 
Apollo and the daughter of Leto. She was 
the goddess of the moon, woods and hunting. 
When but a child, Artemis vowed never to 
marry, and some nymphs, who were always 
her happy companions, took the same maiden 
vows. Sometimes she went through the clus- 
tering woodlands in a silver chariot drawn by 
hounds, and watered her steeds from the reedy 
wells and pools of the forests. Clad in their 
short hunting dresses, and with bows and 
quivers of arrows, Artemis and her laughing 
companions roamed through the shadowy hills 
and the windy headlands hunting the stag and 
wild beasts. When tired of the chase they 
hung up their bows in some grotto, and sang 
and danced in the woodlands or bathed in the 
limpid streams. At night Artemis guided the 
airy moon car, fragrant with pearly dew, 
across the sky. She caught the sweet incense 

142 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

from the sleeping earth and thought night 
more entrancing than day. Once, bending low 
from her moon-car, Artemis saw Endymion 
sleeping under a tree. She glided from her 
chariot and, floating to earth, kissed the sweet 
child, who awakened with a start, and rubbed 
his sleepy eyes with his fat dimpled hands. 
He saw the moon sailing high and bright in 
the heavens and drowsily murmured, "I 
thought the moon kissed me," then went back 
to sleep and his dreams. 

THE DIVINE AGORA 

HIGH in that lovely, laughing abode of sun- 
shine and flowers was the burnished star-pal- 
ace of mighty Zeus. In those spacious halls 
were held the divine Agoras, or wonderful 
counsels of the gods. 

At the command of Zeus, all the gods of 

143 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Olympus and those of the earth and the sea, 
and even grim Hades sped away to meet in his 
courts. 

And what grand, gay, brilliant meetings 
those were ! The imperial gods and goddesses, 
clad in dazzling array, sat on thrones of pure 
gold, in the midst of a palace that was spark- 
ling with jewelled light and perfumed by 
myriads of celestial flowers. 

From their lips flowed sweet, silvery speech, 
as they discoursed on affairs of heaven and 
earth. Their eloquent utterances diffused 
through the halls of loud-thundering Zeus, 
and rang through the top of listening 
Olympus. 

Far apart and high above the glittering 
throng, sat Zeus, ever king, ever mighty, who 
sent the thunderbolts hurling across the blue- 
vaulted skies and flashed down to earth burn- 
ing lightnings. From his throne, the great 

!i44 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

thunderer spoke forth his sacred counsel and 
all Olympus trembled, and flung back the 
echoes of his flaming eloquence. He showed 
his divine will and sealed his promises to the 
gods with a nod of his massive head : 

"Earth and high heaven the dread signal took, 
And all Olympus to the center shook." 

iThen the merry hours began. The glowing 
halls were ravished with the music of Apollo's 
heavenly lyre, and the dulcet sounds of the sil- 
ver-throated muses who dwelt on Mount Heli- 
con. Merry peals of laughter rent the skies, as 
blooming, blushing Hebe filled the golden 
bowl with nectar and ambrosia, and, 

"In his turn. 
Each to his lips applied the nectar'd urn." 

Then they danced — the lovely Hours and 
fair-haired Graces, and Hebe and Aphrodite, 
and all that beauteous crowd. Winsome 

H5 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

sounds and flashing light issued from their 
twinkling feet and wondrous garments. 

When the radiant sun descended down the 
skies, all departed for their starry-domed 
palaces. 

A SACRIFICE AT A TEMPLE 

THE religious worship of Hellas was joyous 
and happy. It consisted of prayers, offerings, 
sacrifices, feasting, dancing and song. The 
Hellenes thought of their gods as the givers 
of all great and good gifts. They thought of 
them as men and women who danced, feasted, 
and made merry upon Olympus and de- 
manded their share of all the good times and 
feastings of earth. At every meal and banquet 
they poured upon the floor a few drops of 
wine or water, and burned some of the 
choicest morsels of food on the hearth. In 

146 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

that way the Hellenes showed forth their 
thanks and the gods received their share of the 
repast. They builded them altars of stone, 
turf or marble. They builded them out in the 
forests, in sacred meadows and before every 
home and temple. On the altars were sacri- 
ficed sheep, goats, cattle, and sometimes swine. 
The animal sacrificed was usually an ox or a 
goat, and often as many as a hundred were 
offered at a sacrifice. Such an offering was 
called a hecatomb, and was only made at great 
festivals. They builded beautiful temples, 
each sacred to some god or goddess and con- 
taining the god's image. Every temple of 
Hellas faced the east and the sunrise. Within 
the sacred shrine they laid their offerings of 
flowers, cakes, loaves, grain, fruit, vessels of 
gold and silver, works of art, tripods and cap- 
tured armor. Each year at the festival of 
Athene a marvelously embroidered robe was 

147 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

presented to the goddess. It was woven and 
embroidered by the dames and maids of 
Athens, and was given with great ceremony 
to the priestess of the temple, who removed 
the old robe and gracefully draped the new 
one about the statue. Each temple had one or 
more priests and priestesses to care for its altar 
and gifts. And the priest led in the sacrifices. 

When the Hellenes made a formal offering 
at the altar of some temple, they went in their 
festal attire and wore wreaths of flowers on 
their heads. They marched in stately proces- 
sions in which maidens gracefully bore on 
their heads the baskets to be used in the sacri- 
fice, and young men in snowy raiment, led the 
animal that was to be offered up on the altar. 
The ox or sheep was made gay with gilded 
horns and garlands of flowers. 

On the altar before the temple a sacred fire 
was burning. The priest in his robes of state 

148 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

plucked a burning brand from the fire, dipped 
it in water and sprinkled the goodly company. 
Stepping to the altar he raised aloft his great, 
glittering knife, crying aloud: "Beware of 
your words," and the ceremony had begun. 

The animal was led to the altar and a bit 
of hair was cut from its head and thrown on 
the fire. Then some barley-corns were taken 
from the basket and the people stretched forth 
their hands and offered their prayers to the 
god of the temple. After the prayers were 
said the barley-corns were tossed upon the 
flower-crowned head and the fire; young men 
turned the animal's head toward heaven, and 
the priest cut its throat with his great, glitter- 
ing knife. All the company shouted joyously 
while the blood was caught in a golden bowl 
and poured upon the fire as a libation. 

Then the animal was deftly skinned and 
carved and parts of the thigh bones were 

149 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

wrapped in layers of white fat and laid on the 
altar, that was made fragrant with flowers, 
wine and spices. The Hellenes thought that 
the savory smoke and fragrance ascending 
from the burning sacrifice delighted and fed 
the god to whom it was offered. 

The flesh was roasted and divided among 
the people who feasted and danced to the 
music of flute and of song. At the last, the 
tongue of the victim was laid on the fire, as 
a gift to the god, and each guest approached 
the altar and poured a libation of wine. 

All the while the temple doors were open 
and the god of the temple gazed out on the 
sacrifice and the revels. Those simple Hel- 
lenes really believed that the statue smiled and 
rejoiced when the delicious smoke and the 
songs of mirth were wafted into the shrine. 



150 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

THE GREAT OLYMPIC GAMES 

iWE have seen that the religion of Hellas was 
a festive one, delighting in feasts, sports and 
gay, brilliant pageants. Out of it grew the 
great athletic games, and festivals for which 
Hellas was noted. There were one or more 
festivals sacred to each god and goddess ; feasts 
to honor the budding springtime and revels 
for the autumn vintage, all of which began 
and ended with processions and sacrifices, and 
were made merry with feasts, dancing and 
games. 

But none of the feasts and revels were so 
thrilling and splendid and so far-reaching in 
their influence as the great Olympic games. 

The Olympic games were held in honor of 
Zeus, and legend says they were founded by 
Heracles when he carried a wild olive from 
the gardens of the Hyperboreans and planted 

151 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

it in the sacred grove near by the temple of 
Zeus at Olympia. 

The games were celebrated on the Olym- 
pian plain every four years, during the full 
moon of July or August, and so sacred was the 
festival month that a truce was declared 
throughout Hellas which caused all strife, 
quarrels and warfare to cease, thus enabling 
the Hellenes — even those from the most dis- 
tant cities and islands — to journey to Olympia 
and again reach their homes in safety. 

The games were made up of chariot, horse 
and foot races ; boxing, leaping, wrestling and 
throwing the discus or quoit. Any free boy, 
youth or man who could prove himself of 
pure Hellenic blood and of blameless charac- 
ter, and who had trained ten months in the 
gymnasia and the required number of days 
under the special trainers at Olympia, could 
enter the athletic contests. Nobles, princes 

152 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and kings who could prove their pure Hel- 
lenic blood and virtuous living entered their 
chariots and horses, which were driven by 
charioteers. 

The kings of Macedon, a little country to 
the north and closely allied to Hellas, con- 
tested in the chariot races, but they, too, were 
required to prove their true Hellenic descent. 
Women were barred from the festivals, but 
royal ladies were permitted to send their 
horses and chariots. 

Thousands of Hellenes met on the plain — 
boys, youths, men, chieftains, nobles, princes 
and kings, striving to outdo their opponents 
in feats of strength, fleetness of horses, splen- 
dor of chariots or magnificence of retinue. 
The best poets, writers, artists and sculptors of 
Hellas were there, reciting their poems, read- 
ing their histories and exhibiting their pic- 
tures or sculptured marble. 

153 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

'Herodotus, the first great historian of Hel- 
las, read his history at one of the Olympic 
festivals. The listening multitude applauded 
loudly and forthwith named the nine books 
of his history for the nine Muses who dwelt on 
Mount Helicon. 

In the booths around the plain of Olympia 
swarthy merchants from Cyrene and from 
Asia Minor exchanged their wares with the 
merchants from Sicily and from Snowy 
Sythia. 

Bathed in the golden glory of summer the 
Olympian plain lay embowered among the 
sacred forests of Zeus, where rose his temple, 
shrines and statues, and the statues of heroes 
and olive-crowned victors, while a river spar- 
kled like morning dew through the glowing 
verdure. For five days and nights that plain 
was transformed into a gorgeous moving pic- 
ture, in which racing steeds and young athletes 

154 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

^'lived out as it were the paintings and sculp- 
ture of Hellas." 

The only prize awarded was a crown made 
of wild olive plucked from the sacred tree 
which was planted by Heracles near by the 
temple of Zeus. The garland was placed on 
the victor's head and it gave to him deathless 
fame and glory. A palm branch was thrust in 
his hand, his name was proclaimed aloud to 
assembled; Hellas, and some poet recited a 
beautiful ode in his praise. 

Once at the Olympic games Alcibiades, an 
Athenian statesman and general, entered seven 
four-horse chariots in the races and won three 
of the prizes. Euripides, one of the greatest 
Greek dramatists, wrote charming lines about 
the victory, and so delighted was Alcibiades 
that he sacrificed to great Zeus, then feasted 
the countless throngs at the festival. 

A princess of Sparta was the first woman of 

155 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Hellas to win renown in the games. She was 
a victor in a four-horse chariot race, and the 
Spartans celebrated her triumph with all pos- 
sible splendor. Those men of Sparta, who cared 
little for the charms of poetry, paid a fabulous 
sum to a poet to record her victory in verse, 
and they erected a magnificent monument in 
her honor. The princess sent a chariot and 
charioteer as an offering to Apollo at Delphi. 
About seven hundred years before the 
Christian era, the Hellenes began to reckon 
time by Olympiads. An Olympiad meant the 
interval of four years which elapsed between 
the festivals. Henceforward they were 
counted successively, and when speaking of 
any event the Hellenes would say it happened 
in the first, second, third or fourth year of a 
certain Olympiad. The counting of time by 
Olympiads marked the close of the Heroic or 
Homeric Age. 

;i56 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

ORACLES 

THE Hellenes feasted their gods with the 
smoke and spicy scent of burnt offerings and 
gladdened their senses with music and mirth 
and the strength of their athletes. In return, 
they believed that their gods talked to them 
through the strange sights and sounds about 
them — the flash of lightning, sudden winds, 
the eclipses of the sun and moon, the flight of 
birds and the actions of an animal when led to 
sacrifice. 

And there were wonderful spots in Hellas 
where great gods made known their wills to 
the Hellenes, uttered their prophecies and 
answered all questions asked them. Those 
sacred places were called oracles, and the re- 
sponses of the gods given therein were called 
oracles, too. The most renowned of all were 
the ancient one of Zeus at Dedona and that of 

157 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

Apollo at Delphi. As with all other things 
connected with the religion of Hellas, many 
fanciful legends clustered about each beloved 
place, 

Dodona was a town in the midst of the oak 
forests of Epirus in Thessaly. There in those 
fragrant groves the oaks were sacred to Zeus. 
He made known his will through the rustling 
leaves and the cooing of sacred doves. Listen- 
ing priests caught their messages and gave 
them to the many Hellenes who sought the 
deep-wooded shrine. The forests of sacred 
oaks with their rustling leaves, cooing doves, 
listening priests and messages, were known as 
the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. 

One of the fanciful legends which clustered 
about the temple at Delphi said that once 
Apollo went faring his way over the earth, 
seeking a shaded haunt in which to establish 
his shrine and oracle. In a cliff-hung dell 

158 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

close by snowy Parnassus, lived the terrible 
Python, a many-headed serpent that was born 
of the slime of the flood. And by a fair-sailing 
stream in that dell, the archer prince let fly a 
golden arrow which smote unto death the rep- 
tile. Straightway, on that very spot, the god 
laid out the foundations and bade the sons of 
man build up a beautiful temple where he 
might speak forth his wisdom and counsel. 
The temple was builded and near by sprung 
up the rich city of Delphi. In the midst of the 
shrine was an opening in the ground from 
which arose vapors, supposed to be the divine 
breath of the far-darting Apollo. Over the 
fissure on a jeweled tripod sat a fair young 
priestess inhaling the misty vapors, and re- 
ceiving prophetic messages from the god of 
the temple. Attending priests put the answers 
in verse and gave them out to the inquiring 
Hellenes. So famous and beloved w^as the 

159 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

oracle of Delphi that the Hellenes never 
founded a colony, declared war or made 
peace, without consulting golden Apollo. Not 
alone for the Hellenes was the oracle of Del- 
phi. Emperors, kings, princes, nobles and 
warriors from all parts of the civilized world 
journeyed to Delphi with their costly offer- 
ings, to seek advice and wisdom. The Del- 
phian temple was a magnificent storehouse of 
wealth, statues and vessels: of gold and of 
silver. 

THE CITY-STATES 

THE city-states of Hellas were the most inter- 
esting feature of her life and government. In 
their history we read the rise and downfall of 
Greece. 

The sea and mountains divide the peninsula 
into Northern, Central and Southern Greece. 

i6o 



STORIES OF. HELLAS 

Mountains and streams again divide these 
parts into smaller districts, which form nat- 
ural states. As it is now, so it was in the lost, 
ancient days. There was a Northern, Central 
and Southern Hellas, each divided into dis- 
tricts or states. 

Northern Hellas consisted of Thessaly and 
Epirus. On the northern edge of Thessaly 
was the vale of Tempe, a shaded, flowery glen 
or opening in the mountains, and the only pass 
from the North into the state. 

Leading from Thessaly into Central Hellas 
was a mountain pass called Thermopolae. It 
was a narrow defile or road, pressed between 
the mountains and sea. Once Thermopolae 
played a mighty part in the history of Hellas. 

Central Hellas was made up of eleven states, 
the chief of which was Attica, whose capital 
was beautiful Athens. Southern Hellas was 
called Peloponnesus, and also contained 

i6i 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

eleven states. The principal one was Laconia 
with Its city of Sparta. 

Each state of Hellas was dotted with valleys 
that were the grassy kingdoms wherein the 
wandering Hellenes built their hill-forts and 
walled towns. We already know that in the 
Heroic Age many of those walled towns had 
grown to be city-states, and were strongholds 
of sceptered kings and nobles. During 
Homer's time the city-states of Hellas were 
almost numberless. It is said that many a king 
could sit in his castle that was perched on a 
hilltop and overlook all of his kingdom which, 
perhaps, was but the valley of some brook. 

With the Hellenes, the city meant not only 
the walled town with its acropolis, temples, 
colonnades and dwellings but it included the 
surrounding valley, with its towns, vineyards, 
orchards and villages, all of which were with- 
in the city limits and under the control of the 

162 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

city. Hence we call the cities of Hellas city- 
states. Each was a minature nation or state, 
with its own laws, government, legends, art, 
manners and customs. Each city was thought 
to be sacred to some god or goddess, who loved 
and protected it and helped fight its battles, 
while the people set apart festival days for 
some special form of worship and built tem- 
ples and images for their protecting deity. 

All the people of Hellas called themselves 
Hellenes; they worshipped the same god, 
spoke the same language, and met in the great 
Olympic games. And those things formed a 
common bond of union among them. But the 
love and patriotism of a Hellen, or old Greek, 
was not for Hellas, but for his own city-state. 
He gladly sacrificed wealth, home, wife, chil- 
dren and his own life to further its glory. 

That intense love and patriotism, together 
with the fact that they were separated by 

163 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

mountains and water and had each a protect- 
ing god, with its own special form of worship, 
kept the states of Hellas from uniting into one 
splendid country. 

Some of the neighboring cities did form 
leagues or unions to promote commerce, pleas- 
ure and religious worship, and sometimes dur- 
ing war, a few united and acknowledged the 
strongest leader in battle. But despite the 
leagues of cities and the common bond of race, 
religion, language and games, the city-state 
was supreme, both on the peninsula and in the 
Hellenic colonies over the seas. 

Those city-states gave a richness and variety 
of life to Hellas that no other land has enjoyed. 
Through them she obtained a golden age of 
beauty and splendor, and through their ambi- 
tions, quarrels and wars, Hellas finally lost her 
place among nations. 



164 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

ATHENS AND SOLON 

BEAUTIFUL Athens in Attica, three or four 
miles from the sea, was always the most de- 
lightful and attractive city of Hellas. 

Every nook and cranny of Athens, from the 
Acropolis down to the plain, had a wealth of 
legends about it. She was ever a theme for the 
poets, who described her as ^'brilliant and vio- 
let-crowned," and called her the Mother of 
Arts and Eloquence. 

The story said that Cecrops, a serpent-tailed 
man who sprang from the soil, was the foun- 
der and first king of the city. He laid the 
foundation and built his castle on the summit 
of a flat-topped rock called the Acropolis. The 
rock is made of violet-hued limestone, and 
rises in abrupt cliffs and terraces, nearly two 
hundred feet from the earth and is one thous- 
and feet long and half as many feet broad. 

165 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

High on that natural stronghold, overlooking 
the plains of Attica, Cecrops builded his city 
and named it Cecropia. He put walls all 
about it and a long flight of steps led up to the 
gates. 

During his reign the gods divided the cities 
of Hellas among them. Poseidon and Athens 
both chose Cecropia, and quarreled about it;, 
Great Zeus called the gods in counsel, who 
agreed to give the city to the god who would 
present the best gift to the people. The con- 
test took place on the Acropolis. Poseidon 
struck the rock with his trident and the first 
horse of earth sprang forth. How fleet, strong 
and handsome it was, and how useful it has 
been to all people! Blue-eyed Athena 
stretched forth her hand and an olive tree 
grew on the rock and the goddess explained 
all its uses to man. The gods gave the city to 
Athena, who named it Athens and called the 

i66 



STORIES OF. HELLAS 

people Athenians. The Athenians built her 
a temple on the Acropolis, enshrining her 
image, that was always the most sacred treas- 
ure of Athens. 

Cecrops gathered the people of Attica into 
twelve walled towns, each with its own petty 
king, while he was lord over all. But Theseus, 
a later king and hero, united the twelve king- 
doms into one grand state and made Athens 
the seat of government. Henceforth, all the 
most distant parts of Attica were part of the 
city. In the course of the centuries the dwell- 
ings were removed from the Acropolis and a 
town without walls was built below. The 
Acropolis was left free for altars, temples and 
magnificent works of art, and for centuries it 
remained the citadel of the city. 

Once there was a wonderfully wise man in 
Athens. His name was Solon. He was so 
clever and good that the world reckons him as 

167 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

one of the sages of Greece. He was a poet, 
statesman and warrior. And when all Athens 
was troubled, when the poor people were be- 
ing sold into slavery, and war-clouds were 
gathering, the city chose Solon to be their 
ruler and law-giver. Solon gave a grand set 
of laws to the people. He wrote them on 
wooden tables that could be turned about in 
the cases that held them and they were kept 
upon the Acropolis. The men of the counsel 
all solemnly swore to observe them, and each 
man took an oath that if he broke one of the 
laws he would put a statue of gold the same 
weight as himself in the temple at Delphi. The 
laws abolished all the existing evils ; they gave 
the people of Athens the right to choose their 
own rules or archon, freed the poor men who 
had been sold into slavery, and gave them the 
right to vote. One of the wisest laws regarded 
laziness as a crime, and required every boy of 

1 68 



STORIES" OF HELLAS 

Athens to be made skilful in some useful trade 
and to be taught how to read and to swim. 
Solon's laws regulated all things in the city — 
the raising of bees, the digging of wells, the 
planting of trees and how many clothes the 
sweet bride should have in her wedding out- 
fit. They forbade a lady going out late in the 
evening except in her carriage and preceded 
by a torch-bearer. 

Athens grew to be a great and wonderful 
city, and her people gave Solon much of the 
honor and glory. History regards him as one 
of the great law-givers of earth. 

SPARTA AND LYCURGUS 

SPARTA was founded by the descendants of 
Heracles and was built in a valley among the 
many-caverned hills of Laconia. She was the 
one city of Hellas that was made without walls 

169 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

or a citadel, and she scorned every defense 
save the might and power of her vi^arriors. 

Athens and Sparta were the most renowned 
and interesting cities of Hellas, and from the 
very first they were rivals. But no two cities 
of earth could have been more widely differ- 
ent. Athens was attractive and artistic, and 
Sparta was stern and defiant. Athens made 
Attica part of the city and all the people 
Athenians, while Spara held in subjection the 
state of Laconia, and only the people who 
lived in the city were Spartans. All others 
were slaves and dependents. 

The strange manners and customs that made 
Sparta unlike other cities were due to the laws 
which were given to the Spartans by a great 
law-giver named Lycurgus. There are many 
stories about Lycurgus, and one of them says 
that he received his wonderful laws from the 
oracle of Delphi, with the assurance that 

170 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Sparta would be a glorious city as long as 
she kept every one of the laws. 

Lycurgus hastened to Sparta where he 
taught and established the laws among the 
people. Remembering the prophecy of the 
oracle, he thought of a plan whereby the laws 
would be kept and Sparta ever remain a glori- 
ous city. He called the people together in one 
vast assembly and, telling them that he was 
going away on a pilgrimage, Lycurgus per- 
suaded the Spartans to swear a solemn oath 
that they would keep every law until he re- 
turned. Then the great-hearted Lycurgus 
went away into exile, forever. 

The people kept their oath sacredly and of 
course they watched in vain for Lycurgus. 
The Spartans thought of him not only as a 
law-giver, but as a hero and a god. They 
builded him a temple and offered sacrifices in 
his honor. For nearly five centuries the laws 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

remained unbroken, and Sparta, governed by 
two kings, was a great and unique city. 

The chief object of the laws of Lycurgus 
was to make a brave and vigorous race of men 
and women. Every babe of Sparta was taken 
before the Senate of Elders, and if it were ill- 
formed or weakly, the child was exposed on 
some mountain to die. But if the babe were 
well-formed and strong, it was permitted to 
live and grow up a Spartan. 

The boys and girls were required to keep 
their bodies strong and healthy, by exercising 
in the open, and the girls of that city were as 
hardy, lithe, and fleet of foot as the boys. 

When the boys were seven years old they 
were taken away from their mothers and be- 
came the property of the city. They lived in 
little bands or companies, and slept together 
on beds of rushes which they gathered with 
their bare hands. In the winter they made 

i/Z 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

their beds warmer by adding thistledown to 
the rushes. They wore no shoes or stockings, 
their heads were shaved, they were allowed 
but one coat a year, and they wore the same 
amount of clothing both in summer and win- 
ter. Public trainers taught them a little read- 
ing and writing, and some war-stirring poetry 
and music. They were taught to obey every 
Spartan as they did their fathers, and to en- 
dure pain and hunger without flinching. 
Once a year they were taken into the temple of 
Artemis and severely flogged, to see how much 
pain they could endure. Many a boy of 
Sparta fell dead before the statue of the god- 
dess, rather than to cry out with pain in her 
presence. 

There were no rich or poor in Sparta, The 
land was divided equally among the citizens, 
and a Spartan's only claims to nobility were 
his virtue and valor. As to the money, no one 

173 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

cared for it, and really, all disdained to possess 
the queer, clumsy stuff, made of iron, and so 
heavy that anything like a fortune would have 
required oxen to move it. The neighboring 
cities laughed at the sight of iron money and 
refused to trade with the Spartans. Hence 
they had no commerce, and the people were 
forced to make all articles necessary for their 
frugal ways of living. 

The men of Sparta were warriors and per- 
formed no sort of labor. They ate at public 
tables, and were rarely permitted to eat or 
mingle with their families. Each man was 
required to furnish a share of the food, which 
was plain and simple — a black broth being the 
national dish of Sparta. Once a luxury-loving 
man of Athens was a guest at one of their 
tables, and when he saw the coarse fare he 
laughingly remarked that he could see why a 
Spartan was so willing to die in battle. 

174 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

The Spartans loved war, for then their stern 
discipline was relaxed and every meal was a 
feast. They could wear handsome clothes or 
flashing armor and could curl their hair beau- 
tifully — every Spartan tried to have a fine 
head of hair, for Lycurgus had taught that 
such an ornament made a good face better 
looking and added a sort of grim terror to an 
ugly one. The Spartans went into battle in 
perfect ranks, but all were dancing, keeping 
step to the music, and acting like young race-^ 
horses, eager to dash away on some race- 
course. 

And how brave and heroic were the Spartan 
mothers! They gayly sent their sons away to 
war, saying as they did so: "My son, return 
with your shield, or upon it." Writers say 
that those mothers wept when their sons were 
all slain and they had no more to die fighting 
for Sparta. 



THE GREAT PERSIAN WARS 



A GREAT NATIONAL DANGER 

MORE than a thousand years had passed 
since the Hellenes, fierce and warlike, had 
come over the mountains down through the 
fair vale of Tempe, and won the sunny penin- 
sula from the Pelasgians. 

We remember that Hellas was the prize of 
a fierce, primitive war that was fought with 
pikes, bows and arrows and other rude weap- 
ons — a war all unheralded to the world, un- 
sung by the poets, unwritten in history, and 
forgotten by the Hellenes long before the 
Tribal days ended. But mighty changes had 
been wrought in Hellas during the thousand 
intervening years. 

Long gone was the Tribal Age with its 
w^andering barbarism; and gone was the He- 
roic Age, with its sceptered kings, beautiful 

queens and glittering palaces, fast-locked in 

179 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the tombs and the centuries. The Hellenes of 
those days had gone forth and met the civiliza- 
tion and culture of the East. They mingled it 
with their own thought and energy and the 
songs of the poets, and out of it all arose Greek 
or Hellenic civilization and culture that 
spread throughout Hellas and ushered in new 
ages of life and of progress. Following the 
golden path of the sun, the Hellenes car- 
ried their civilization and culture west- 
ward into Sicily and Italy. A Greek poet 
called the many cities of Sicily a "gorgeous 
crown of citadels." Southern Italy was called 
Great Greece, and there in the land of the 
famed Seven Hills was the Spartan city of 
Tarentum, noted for its wealth and refinement. 

As the glorious rays of the sun fall to the 
north and the south, so did Greek colonization 
and power spread northward and southward. 

Hellas no longer meant just the peninsula 

1 80 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

that the Hellenes had won from the Pelas- 
gians, but Hellas included all the wonderful, 
beautiful cities she had founded on the islands 
and on the coasts of other lands to the East, 
West, North and South. 

We know that all the people of Hellas were 
Hellenes, who spoke the same language, wor- 
shipped the same gods, and met in the Olym- 
pic games. But they were not a united people. 
They had no great ruler, no navy and standing 
army, no national treasury and no national 
law-making body. 

And now a great national danger threatened 
them; fierce war-clouds were fast gathering 
in the east, and the doom of lovely Hellas 
seemed near. 

Persia, the ancient and glorious heir of the 
Orient, had set out to conquer the world. 
Turning her greedy eyes westward, she saw 
Greek civilization and culture, and deter- 

i8i 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

mined to blot them out for ever from the face 
of the earth, then march on into Europe and 
establish her empire. Right well did she 
know that the Hellenes were brave and fear- 
less, skilled in all the highest arts of war and 
eager to give their lives for their cities. "But 
what are those things,'^ thought great King 
Darius, "compared with the vast countless 
armies, the magnificent fleets and the fabulous 
wealth of the Orient? Will not the very ad- 
vance of the Persian hosts frighten all Europe 
into submission?" 

How little the king of the East knew the 
sons of Athens and Sparta! He never 
dreamed that Miltiades, Themistocles and 
Leonidas, valiant leaders and heroes in battle, 
could take but a few handfuls of brave Hel- 
lenes and put to rout all the dreams of the 
Orient. 

With the swelling pride of the conqueror, 

182 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

he sent his heralds into every city of Hellas, 
demanding earth and water as tokens of sub- 
mission. Through fear, some of the weaker 
states yielded, but not beautiful Athens and 
grim Sparta. They threw the king's heralds 
into a pit and a well, and sneeringly bade them 
take their fill of earth and water. What a de- 
fiant challenge to Persia, and how like these 
cities ! 

MILTIADES AT MARATHON 

FOR the first time in her history, Hellas was 
in deadly peril. If she had been a nation 
united under one ruler, every Hellene would 
have been singing her war-songs. She would 
have issued a call to war and battleships would 
have gone forth to meet the Persians. 

But Hellas was not united. She had no 
battleships and armies and she had no national 

183 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

war-songs. Every Hellene, you know, sang 
the war-songs of his own little city. But the 
time had come for union; if Greek civiliza- 
tion and Greek culture were to be saved for 
the world, the city-states must unite against 
the Eastern invaders. 

King Darius had issued a decree that 
Athens must be destroyed. That decree 
sounded like a death knell to the city. The 
Athenians were stunned and amazed. They 
knew that the vast Persian armies would soon 
pour in upon them; but they resolved then 
and there that Athens should not be destroyed. 
Sparta was one hundred and fifty miles from 
Athens; and Phidippides, a fleet runner, ran 
all the distance in thirty-six hours, to ask the 
Spartans to help save the city. Because of 
some festival, the Spartans refused, but prom- 
ised their aid later. Once Athens had aided 
Plataea. The city remembered the service 

184 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

and sent one thousand heavily armed Plataeans 
to Athens. Miltiades had gathered nine thou- 
sand Athenians, and with the one thousand 
men from Plataea, they marched away from 
the city and hid in the mountains that border 
the plains of Marathon. 

Six hundred Persian Triremes had sailed 
into the Bay of Marathon and landed a 
mighty army of one hundred twenty thousand 
men, who were advancing on Athens. Sud- 
denly Miltiades and his ten thousand men 
rushed out upon them like some furious tem- 
pest. Under the fierce onslaught of that hand- 
ful of Hellenes, the Persians fled to the sea and 
their boats. Before they could tumble into 
their galleys and push off, the brave Hellenes 
were upon them again. Terrible tumult and 
battle ensued on the shore. Some of the Hel- 
lenes held back the boats with their hands 
while the others did the fighting. One brave 

185 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

fellow, the brother of one of the greatest 
Greek poets, was trying to hold a galley when 
a Persian battle axe whacked off his hands. 
Quick as thought he clung to the sides of the 
boat with his teeth. Did you ever hear of such 
wonderful heroism? At last the six hundred 
Persian vessels pulled away from the Hellenes 
and sailed out of the bay — ^but not the hundred 
and twenty thousand men. Six thousand brave 
fellows lay dead on the sands of the plain; 
Miltiades lost but two hundred. 

Athens had been left defenseless ; alone with 
her aged men, women and children. Miltia- 
des saw that the fleeing Persians were pulling 
their oars for her walls. Without a moment's 
delay he gathered his victorious army and 
forced them to run back to Athens — twenty 
miles through the August sunshine and heat. 
Just as they swept breathless into the plain 
south of the city, six hundred Persian ships 

1 86 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

touched the shore. You may guess how sur- 
prised were those Persians. They could 
scarcely believe their eyes when they saw Mil- 
tiades and the same dauntless army that had a 
few hours before put them to flight. But 
there they were, drawn up for battle, their 
armor and swords flashing in the golden sun- 
light. 

The men of the Orient gazed in wonder and 
awe; then, struck with a sudden fear and ter- 
ror, they turned their galleys about and sailed 
away to Asia. 

Miltiades had won deathless fame, and all 
Athens was wild with the joy of the victory. 
They thought the Persians had sailed away 
from their shores for ever and that King 
Darius would never again dare to advance on 
Europe. 



187 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

THE ELOQUENCE OF THEMISTO- 

CLES 

THEMISTOCLES was one of the heroes 
who helped win the victory at Marathon. He, 
too, was proud and triumphant and joined 
with the people in singing their wild songs of 
joy and in their offerings and hymns to the 
gods. 

But Themistocles did not join them in say- 
ing that the Persians had sailed away for ever. 
He was too clever and cunning for that. Right 
well did he know that King Darius would 
never bow to such defeat and dishonor, but 
that hot with hate and revenge he would again 
advance on Europe. 

He was a statesman and an eloquent orator 
and soon convinced the Athenians that all was 
not over, and caused them to build a strong 
fleet and harbor and prepare for a second con- 

i88 



STORIES OE HELLAS 

flict with the Persians. The far-seeing states- 
man of Athens was right in his guessing. Even 
then all the Orient was in a tumult of prepara- 
tion for a second conflict with Hellas. 

King Darius was dead. King Xerxes, his 
son, was young, proud and ambitious and was 
carrying on the great work begun by his 
father. He was collecting such an army and 
fleet as the world had never before seen, and 
building a canal across the isthmus at Mount 
Athos. Architects from Egypt and Phoenicia 
were spanning the Hellespont with a splendid 
double bridge of boats, and that was to be 
the royal roadway into Europe. 

Hellas knew what Xerxes was doing and 
was in a ferment of action. The eloquence 
of Themistocles had persuaded Athens and 
Sparta and many of the city-states to meet in 
a congress at Corinth, and unite against the 
incoming barbarians. In that congress, in- 

J89 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

spired by Themistocles, the assembled states 
declared all their own petty quarrels and jeal- 
ousies over and bound themselves together to 
fight for Hellas. They further pledged that 
v^hen the struggle with the East was over, they 
would make war upon every state of Hellas 
that in any way helped the Persians. The con- 
gress agreed to give one-tenth of all the spoils 
of the warfare to their beloved Oracle at Del- 
phi. Sparta was acknowledged supreme and 
given command of the army and navy. Then 
the Hellenes decided that Leonidas, king of 
Sparta, in command of all the land forces, 
should take his stand at Thermopylae and try 
to check the advancing army, while the fleet, 
under a Spartan admiral and Themistocles, 
was to go to the coast and meet the naval forces 
of Xerxes. 

In the midst of it all a terrible storm tore 
away the splendid double bridge of boats over 

190 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the Hellespont. When the news was taken 
to King Xerxes, he was so angry that he or- 
dered the architects from Egypt and Phoenicia 
to be put to death, and the sea to be bound in 
fetters and beaten. Then other architects 
built a stronger and larger bridge and Persia 
was ready for Hellas. 

LEONID AS AT THERMOPYLAE 

ONE morning in spring, ten years after they 
had fled from Marathon, the Persians began 
their second advance on Hellas. 

What a thrilling and gorgeous pageant was 
seen on the shores of the Hellespont! The 
world had never before nor has never since 
seen such a brilliant spectacle. Xerxes had 
gathered all the power, strength, glory and 
splendor of the Orient into vast countless 
armies and fleets. They were now going forth 

i9i< 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

for a final, desperate struggle between the East 
and the West. And the King was going with 
them. He was taking a silver-footed, jeweled 
throne, whereon he might sit and watch the 
glorious conflict. Xerxes looked splendid in 
his robes of state, and he was attended by a 
body-guard of ten thousand flower-crowned 
men, known in history as the Ten Thousand 
Immortals. The double bridge of boats had 
been strewn with myrtle and roses, and per- 
fumed from golden censers. The great king 
himself had poured libations into the sea. Just 
as the great burnished sun car flashed through 
the gates of the morning, Xerxes and his army 
offered their prayers, then began to pass over 
the Hellespont into Europe. They were seven 
days and nights passing over the bridge. All 
the while twelve hundred Persian triremes 
and three thousand smaller boats were sailing 
through the waters westward to Hellas. 

192 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Think of it, children. All that magnificent 
army of nearly two million men poured over 
the mountains, down through the fair Vale of 
Tempe, into Thessaly. AH lovely Hellas was 
thrilling and shaking under the tread of the 
invaders. 

The Hellenes were at the Olympic Games. 
Despite the terrible danger, they would not 
forego their festival. But they sent Leonidas 
with seven thousand men to guard the pass 
at Thermopylae. Among those men were 
three hundred Spartans. That little band was 
ordered to keep back the enemy until the 
games were over, then the other Hellenes 
would hasten to help them. 

There in that narrow road, hemmed in by 
the mountains and sea, Leonidas and his seven 
thousand men took their stand. They had 
only spears for weapons. Before them stretched 
the plains of Thessaly that were filled with the 

193 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

hordes of the Orient. These hordes were mak- 
ing their way to Athens and must pass through 
that narrow defile. Leonidas and his men 
barred the entrance. To be sure, there was a 
secret path over the mountains, but of course 
the Persians knew nothing about it. Xerxes 
commanded the men to surrender their arms. 
Leonidas sent back the words, "Come and take 
them." 

For two days Leonidas, with seven thousand 
men, kept back Xerxes, with his hundreds of 
thousands. It is said that the King of the East 
would leap from his throne and scream out 
with rage when he saw some splendid charge 
of his army hurled back. 

But, alas ! On the third day a traitor pointed 
out that secret path to the king. Hundreds of 
Persians were scaling the mountain and would 
soon pour into the pass from the rear. Leoni- 
das knew all was over. There was plenty of 

194 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

time to escape, and most of the Hellenes fled 
for their lives. But Leonidas, his three hun- 
dred Spartans, and one thousand other Hel- 
lenes scorned to be cowards. It was their duty 
to die. They stepped boldly out among the 
Persians, and every man fell gloriously fight- 
ing. 

Leonidas and his brave men won eternal 
glory, and all the world has heard of Ther- 
mopylae. 

THE BURNING OF ATHENS 

THE Persians passed through the narrow 
defile at Thermopylae and swept on toward the 
plains of Attica. They were advancing on 
"brilliant and violet-crowned" Athens. 

Themistocles was out on the waters with 
the Hellenic fleet. Through his skill and dar- 
ing that fleet had already met and destroyed 

I195 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

some of the Persian galleys. When he heard 
of Thermopylae and the enemy's advance on 
his beloved city, Themistocles hurried the 
fleet into the bay of Salamis — a narrow stretch 
of water between the island of Salamis and the 
shores of Attica. He hastened into the town 
and told the Athenians to take to their boats 
and fly to Salamis. The people refused to de- 
sert their city, with its temples, statues and 
holy places; they preferred to trust to their 
deeds of prowess and meet and fight the enemy 
at home. 

Somehow, the people of Athens were not 
very much afraid of the Persians. They re- 
membered how, ten years before, a great East- 
ern army had fled from their shores at the 
sight of Miltiades and ten thousand hot, 
breathless Athenians. 

Themistocles knew their grave danger. He 
urged them to go to Salamis, but all his plead- 

196 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

ing was vain. He was almost in despair when 
a happy thought struck him. He would go to 
the temple at Delphi and talk with the 
priestess. Right well did he know that the 
Athenians would believe and obey any mes- 
sage sent them by their oracle. The cunning 
man rushed away to Delphi and asked the 
oracle what the Athenians must do to save 
themselves. The answer was, "When every- 
thing else fails in Athens, the people must de- 
fend themselves with walls of wood." He 
rushed back with the message. The people 
were all excited and could not think what 
"walls of wood" meant. There was one among 
them who knew, and that was Themistocles. 
He stood up and said, "Oh, ye Athenians, 
Golden Apollo means to tell us that our ships 
have wooden walls that are even now waiting 
to defend us." The people were delighted 
and accepted the oracle. They wondered at 

197 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the wisdom of Themistocles and made his 
word law among them. Do you not think he 
was very clever? All were now eager to take to 
the boats and fly to Salamis. Cimon, the son 
of Miltiades, went up to the Acropolis and 
hung his bridle in the temple of Athene, to 
show that seamen, not horsemen, were needed 
in Hellas. They tenderly carried the sacred 
statue of the temple, and with their arms 
and their shields and their treasures, the peo- 
ple of Athens formed in solemn procession 
and marched out of the city down to the sea. 

All the men who could fight crowded into 
boats and sailed away to join the fleet at Sala- 
mis. The women, children, slaves and old men 
were taken to a city out on the island. There 
the people received them kindly and treated 
them like invited guests. They provided school 
masters for the children and told them to 
pluck their fruit and their flowers. 

198 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Thus ^^brilliant and violet-crowned" Athens 
was deserted. Her last hope was taken away 
with the sacred statue of Athene. The gates 
of the Acropolis had scarcely swung close and 
the last boat pushed out from the shore, when 
the Persian host swung into view. 

The approaching army was hot with hate 
and revenge. Years before the Athenians had 
accidentally burned Sardis, a beautiful city 
of Persia. The Persians had neither forgot- 
ten nor forgiven the injury. There was the 
despised city of the Athenians, alone and at 
their mercy. With a yell of triumph, they 
swept through the town and up to the Acropo- 
lis. They ravaged the holy places and tore 
down the splendid temples. Then they set 
fire to Athens. How they shouted and danced 
when they saw the proud city burning! 

Across the bay, at Salamis, the Athenians 

199 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

saw the smoke and the flames, and wept bitter 
tears of sorrow. 



THE FLIGHT OF XERXES 

OUT in the bay of Salamis all was thrilling 
confusion. The great naval forces of Persia 
and the naval forces of Hellas were to meet in 
a deadly conflict. 

In the early dawn of a September morning 
the vast countless armies of Xerxes had gath- 
ered on the shores of Attica, eager to watch 
the battle. They were still gloating over the 
burning of Athens, and were sure that their 
seamen would carry the day. Princes stood 
about on the sands, and secretaries were wait- 
ing to write down every detail of the story. 
Xerxes had his silver-footed throne placed 
high on a cliff, that he might view every glor- 
ious move of his splendid galleys. Some beau- 

200 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

tiful queen of the Orient commanded one of 
those galleys. She begged him not to engage 
in the fight, for his clumsy vessels would have 
no chance in the narrow channel. The East- 
ern monarch laughed with fine scorn and said 
that his triremes would have every advantage. 

Across on the shores of Salamis were 
throngs of the islanders and the Athenian men, 
women, children and slaves who had taken 
refuge among them. They crowded the 
strands and the hill-tops, eagerly awaiting the 
conflict, and were trusting their gods and 
brave seamen to save their lovely land from 
the Persians. 

In the bay, the fleets lay ready for battle. 
Three hundred sixty-six war vessels of Hellas 
were surrounded by one thousand triremes of 
Persia. The crafty Themistocles had planned 
it all. He tricked the king of the Orient into 
fighting in that narrow stretch of waters, and 

20I 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

was even delaying the fight till the breezes of 
morning could blow in the breakers, which he 
knew that would make the king's vessels hard 
to manage. The ships drew near to each other 
and the struggle began. It was one of the 
fiercest battles ever fought in the waters of 
earth. The Persian galleys were high, heavy 
and clumsy, and the breezes and breakers 
were against them. The vessels of Hellas 
were light, graceful and speedy, and had big 
brazen prows that rammed into the clumsy 
triremes, dealing death and disaster. 

The king looked down from his throne and 
saw the awful destruction. He saw the beau- 
tiful queen in her galley do daring deeds of 
valor, and wished that his men were all 
women. Before the day closed the seamen of 
Hellas defeated and put to flight the magnifi- 
cent fleet of the Orient. 

Seized with sudden panic and fear, Xerxes 

202 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and his vast, countless armies fled from the 
shores. The craven cowards took their flight 
over the same way they had come — through 
the pass at Thermopylae, up through the fair 
Vale of Tempe, and poured over the moun- 
tains toward the Hellespont. Their double 
bridge of boats was broken and gone, but the 
fleeing galleys were waiting for them. Xerxes 
and his hordes of invaders crowded into the 
defeated triremes and sailed away forever to 
Asia, leaving the silver-footed throne high on 
a cliff in Attica. 

The dreams of the Orient were shattered. 
A few handfuls of brave soldiers and seamen, 
led by Miltiades, Leonidas and Themistocles, 
had put an end to the struggle between the 
East and the West. 

On the shores of Salamis, the Hellenes held 
a festival of thanksgiving and rejoicing. 
Hymns were sung and prayers and sacrifices 

203 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

were offered to the gods. There were speeches, 
processions, choruses and feasting. Beautiful 
youths danced to the music of lyres, and poets 
recited exquisite poems in praise of Leonidas 
and his brave men who fell fighting at Ther- 
mopylae. The Spartans invited Themistocles 
to be the guest of their city. There they 
crowned him with wild olive for his skillful 
management and presented him with a rare, 
costly chariot. When he departed three hun- 
dred young men escorted him to the borders 
of their state. When Themistocles appeared 
at the Olympic games, the people stood up, 
stared, and clapped their hands and treated 
him like a mighty hero. 



THE GOLDEN AGE 



A PROSPEROUS ERA 

THE Battle of Marathon was fought and 
won four hundred ninety years before the 
Christ Child was born. The century and a 
half that followed that victory was the Golden 
Classic Age of Hellas. 

The glow and enthusiasm of her great na- 
tional danger and victories were pulsing 
through the veins of all Hellas. Straightway 
she leaped to the heights of her fame and her 
glory. 

The freedom and culture that had begun in 
her city-states reached almost glorious perfec- 
tion and for the first time in history, Hellas 
showed to the world true democratic govern- 
ment and freedom — "a government by the 
people, for the people and of the people." 

207 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Freedom is a priceless heritage, the most 
precious that a nation can offer her people. It 
is only when men are free that their minds and 
souls can grow and expand, and produce last- 
ing works of art and literature. 

Hellas had been trampled by the hordes of 
Eastern invaders. Her sacred shrines and 
temples were pillaged. Beautiful Athens was 
in ashes. But the Hellenes were proud and 
triumphant. They were free, and fired with 
love for the gods and their cities. Poets and 
artists by nature, they felt the divine call to 
action and glory. 

Their land was a store-house of wealth and 
inspiration. It opened to them like the glit- 
tering caves of Alladin. There were the 
myths and legends, the magnificent concep- 
tions of the gods and goddesses, and the splen- 
did young forms of athletes, with their crowns 
of wild olive, all waiting to be expressed in 

208 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

marble and color. Hellas had quarries of 
exquisite marble for her statues, colonnades 
and temples, and all the colors of sunset 
flashed through her language. 

Some great scholar has said that at no other 
time, in no other land, and by no other people 
could the glorious things have been attained 
that the Hellenes attained in Hellas. 

Out of the marble the artists chiseled mar- 
velous beauty, and out of the language the 
poets and writers wrought a literature that has 
charmed all ages. The statesmen and orators, 
artists and scholars fashioned and gave to the 
world a new Hellas — a Hellas built up of 
freedom, eloquence, marbled beauty, song and 
philosophy. For one golden century and a 
half, the Hellenes reveled in the freedom and 
culture, poetry and song for which their lovely 
flower-jeweled land was destined. 



209 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

A TYPICAL GREEK HOUSE 

IN the rude tribal age, the people of Hellas 
lived in their tiny round huts made of clay 
and brush, or wandered about, sleeping in 
leafy woodland coverts. They knew no bet- 
ter and were care free and happy. But time 
and the Hellenes made many changes. 

The Heroic Age found them living in glit- 
tering palaces with courts and gardens and 
great glistening gates. Those, too, passed 
away with the centuries that brought different 
ages of home life and manners. 

The classic Golden Age was splendid with 
public buildings, temples, colonnades and 
sculpture. It was really an age of public life, 
thought and feeling. The men of Hellas 
would spend fabulous sums to adorn their 
cities with marble and ivory, and to build 
shaded, flowery haunts for the philosophers 

2IO 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and poets. But those same men were content 
to live in simple one-storied houses. You see 
there were millions of slaves and dependents 
who did the labor and work of the cities, thus 
leaving the citizens free to engage in politics, 
religion, art, philosophy and athletic sports. 
They met their friends in the agoras, colon- 
nades, gymnasia, games and public assemblies, 
and they thought of their homes as charming 
retreats in which to seclude their families, to 
sleep, and to give evening dinner-parties to 
their chosen men friends. 

The typical Greek house of that age was 
built around an open court, from which it ob- 
tained the air and sunlight. Thus, you see, it 
had no pretty terraced lawns, with walks and 
flowers, and no cool, inviting porches with 
wide doors and windows. The front of that 
house uprose like a blank wall, and was white- 
washed, tinted or covered with stucco. 

211 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

The door opened into a narrow passage, be- 
side which was a tiny room for the porter — 
a slave — ^who answered the knocker and ad- 
mitted the visitors. He was usually attended 
by his faithful dog, that wagged his tail glee- 
fully when his master beamed and smiled upon 
some welcome guest. Plutarch, a noted writer, 
says that the Greeks had ^'knockers to rattle 
on the doors, so that the stranger might not 
catch the mistress in the open, nor the unmar- 
ried daughter, nor a slave being chastised, nor 
the servant girl screaming." 

If the master of the house owned a horse, 
it was kept in a stall on the opposite side of the 
passage. Do you not think that the Hellenes 
had some very queer ways of home-making? 

The passage led into the court, which was a 
square or patch of yard, open to the blue sky 
above and with a mosaic floor patterned like a 
rug in the center. The court was the recep- 

212 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

tion-room, sitting-room and family dining- 
room. Pet birds and animals, flitted and 
whisked about, and in the middle stood an 
altar, where the father, surrounded by the 
family and slaves, offered the household 
prayers and sacrifices. Running around the 
four sides of the porch was a covered colon- 
nade, supported by marble or stone pillars. 
There the family and guests sat and talked and 
took their morning constitutionals. 

Enclosing the court was the house, the 
rooms of which opened into the court and 
could be entered in no other way. They were 
provided with both doors and curtains. On 
either hand were the men's quarters, bed- 
rooms, guest-chambers, and the large din- 
ing-hall in which were held the dinner-parties 
and symposia. At the rear were the women's 
apartments, made private and secured by 
doors, beyond which the young ladies seldom 

213 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

appeared. Those apartments were made up of 
bedrooms, kitchen, and the storerooms where 
the female slaves worked and slept. Behind 
all was a garden with a door leading into it. 

The house had a flat roof from which the 
women, children and hand-maidens sometimes 
viewed the sights and pageants of the city. 
There were no chimneys. In that sunny land, 
fires were rarely needed. When necessary they 
were made of wood or charcoal and carried 
about from room to room in handsome braz- 
iers, the smoke getting out the best that it 
could. The kitchen was provided with a fixed 
fireplace, with an opening or outlet for the 
smoke. The house had a bath, and water for 
all household purposes was supplied by a cis- 
tern or well, while waste water was carried 
away by a drain into the street. 

The interior decorations were very simple — 
patterned, cement floors, plain walls and ceil- 

214 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

ings with ornaments of stucco and colored 
traceries. The furniture was scant, but it was 
light, graceful and artistic. The Greeks' ex- 
quisite sense of beauty showed in the elegant 
couches, beautifully inlaid tables and chairs 
and in lamps, baskets, vases, goblets and all 
sorts of gold and silver vessels which were for 
both use and ornament. Tables seldom were 
used except at meals or for the display of urns 
and goblets during some festive occasion. 
Even the writing was not done upon a table, 
but upon the right knee, which was elevated 
for the purpose. 

The beds were frames of bronze or inlaid 
wood, with strips of leather or canvas 
stretched from side to side. Those thongs of 
leather or canvas took the place of our modern 
springs and were furnished with flock mat- 
tresses, pillows stuffed with feathers and pur- 
ple-dyed coverlets made of wool or of skins. 

215 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

AGGRAS-COLONNADES— GYM- 

NASIA 

DO you not think that it would be very inter- 
esting and worth while to know something 
about the agoras, colonnades and gymnasia, 
where the men of classic Hellas met and 
mingled together, discussing religion, art, 
philosophy, and politics, or training their 
bodies in suppleness and strength? 

Every city had its agora, which was an 
open square, surrounded by offices, shade- 
trees, colonnades, temples and statues. It was 
a general meeting-place for important gather- 
ings, reviews and processions. One portion of 
the agora was the market-place, with many 
stalls and movable booths, and close at hand 
were shops where various commodities were 
sold. Anything could be obtained at the stalls 
and booths. The market was open until 

216 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

noonday, and with heaps of fish, fruits and 
vegetables, the noise, bustle, and cries of the 
venders it must have been very much like our 
own markets. Poor women cried their wares 
— homespun yarn and woven garlands of flow- 
ers, — but well-to-do ladies were rarely seen in 
the market-place, for the household marketing 
was done by the slaves or their masters. Thus 
the men usually spent a part of the morning in 
the agora and mingled with their friends as 
they lounged in the colonnades or walked in 
the shade of the plane-trees. 

The colonnades were covered walks or 
lounging places, and some writer has called 
them "glorified verandas.'' A colonnade con- 
sisted of a flat roof supported in front by rows 
of columns and by a wall at the back. Often 
the wall was run through the middle with 
a colonnade on each side; and sometimes in- 
stead of the walls there were interior rows of 

217 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

columns, which made a colonnade with pil- 
lared aisles or walks. They were not only 
walks or lounging places, but were places of 
meeting for social conversation and scholarly 
discussion, and were sometimes used as halls 
and as courts of justice. On cool days fires 
were built in some of the cheaper ones in order 
that the poor and unemployed of the city might 
have the pleasure of conversing together. 
Many of the colonnades, especially of Athens, 
were picturesque and delightful retreats. 
iThey were constructed of marble and adorned 
with statues, shields and trophies of battle, the 
walls were painted to portray historic facts 
and legends and the edges of the roofs were 
made attractive with costly ornaments. 

The gymnasia were the places set apart for 
the bodily training upon which the Hellenes 
set so much store. They were grounds, parts 
of which were shaded, while the other parts 

218 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

were great open spaces for running, leaping, 
jumping, wrestling, boxing, and throwing the 
discus and spear. About the arena were stat- 
ues of gods, heroes, and victors in the great 
games; terraces, colonnades and rooms for 
purching, dressing and bathing. While the 
young men were actively engaged in the arena 
the older men looked down from the colon- 
nades and terraces applauding their feats of 
strength, and telling tales of their own youth- 
ful days; or wandering under the plane- 
trees talking with some philosopher. 



THE GREEK MAID 

WHEN the classic maid was a wee baby girl, 
a fillet of snowy wood was hung on the outer 
door, an emblem that she would grow up pure 
and lovely, skilled in the arts of spinning and 

219 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

weaving, which were so dear to the heart of 
the blue-eyed Athene. 

Her first and only party was given when she 
was ten days old and it was for the purpose of 
naming her. The guests were her kinsmen 
who wore their handsomest robes and gave 
gifts to both mother and babe. The wee baby 
girl was carried by her nurse at a run three 
times round a blazing fire on the hearth, and 
all present offered prayers and a sacrifice to 
Hestia, the calm stately goddess of the hearth 
and home. A special cake was eaten by the 
guests and the daughter received her name. 
She was taken away and tenderly laid in her 
cradle, shaped like a shoe, which was hung 
up and swung to and fro by the nurse who 
sang a sleepy lullaby. 

Her childhood was carefree and happy. 
Like a modern child she had an array of dolls 
and toys. She played in the court-yard chat- 

220 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

tering to the pet birds and animals, and swung 
in the colonnade. Her mother and nurse taught 
her the songs of the poets and took her up to 
the house top to view the processions in the 
streets. At mid-day, the tiny maid lunched 
with her parents in the court or when dinner 
was not for company she went in to dessert 
clambering on her father's couch or on her 
mother's lap. 

As the maid of Hellas grew older her 
mother or a slave taught her reading, writing 
and a little music, and she learned the beauti- 
ful arts of spinning, weaving and working 
embroidery. She also learned plain sewing, 
cooking and how to manage all affairs of the 
household. Otherwise she received no educa- 
tion, for in those days the ideal career of a girl 
was: "To see as little as possible, to hear as 
little as possible, and to ask as few questions 
as possible." 

221 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

When she became a young lady she was 
rarely permitted to go beyond the middle door 
which separated the women's quarters from 
the court and only went abroad to take part in 
a religious festival or a funeral ceremony, or 
to visit a temple. 

How graceful and pretty she looked as she 
went forth attended by slaves! She was clad 
in saffron-colored tunic and mantle embroi- 
dered with flowers, her feet were daintily 
shod in high boots, and her hair was drawn in 
soft curves into a knot at the back of her head 
and held in place by a net of gold threads. 
She carried a parasol, and a fan of peacock's 
feathers and wore bracelets and a necklace of 
gold. 

There came a time in the early bloom of 
her life, when the classic maiden of Hellas 
was betrothed in marriage by her father to 
some man whom perhaps she had not even 

222 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

seen — so you see there was no pretty speech- 
making, no sending of flowers and no exchang- 
ing of gifts between them. A few days later 
was the wedding-day, when both houses of- 
fered prayers and sacrifices to Hera, Aphro- 
dite, and Artemis, the goddesses who presided 
over marriage; and the outer door of each 
home was festooned with wreaths of fresh 
flowers, or branches of olive and laural. 

In her apartment the bride sat on a settle 
holding a polished mirror in her hand and 
surrounded by her mother and hand maidens 
who were gayly arraying her for her bridal. 
Covered inlaid chests, stood open, piled with 
festal finery, and the room was filled with 
fragrance from rare perfumes. They brushed 
and coiled her luxuriant hair, fastening it with 
a golden coronal, and twining the thongs of the 
white embroidered slippers about the feet of 
their mistress. From an ivory casket the 

223 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

mother took .pearls for her daughter's ears, a 
strand of jewels for her throat and exquisite 
serpent-shaped armlets to adorn her white 
arms. They robed her in trailing tunic and 
mantle of dazzling whiteness and fastened her 
veil with a golden pin and a wreath of deli- 
cate blossoms. She must have been pleased 
with herself when she took her final peep in 
the mirror. 

When the rooms of the house were dusky 
with evening a chariot drawn by mules and 
surrounded by flute-players, and youths 
dressed in white, with wreaths of flowers on 
their heads drove up to the garlanded door. 
The carriage had come to carry the bride to 
the home of the bridegroom. 

With his best man and his father the bride- 
groom entered the court. He wore a white 
tunic and mantle made of the finest wool of 
Miletus, half shoes with crimson thongs 

224 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

clasped with gold, and a chaplet of myrtle 
twigs and oderous violets. 

Receiving the veiled bride from the hands 
of her mother, he escorted her to the carriage 
where he seated her betvs^een himself and his 
best man while they remained standing. Her 
mother and attendants kindled the marriage 
torches, and followed by the mother, the pro- 
cession moved away amid merry songs and the 
music of flutes. They went through the streets 
to the home of the bridegroom where they 
were received with showers of confetti and 
coins. 

All repaired at once to the marriage feast 
which was served in the dining hall. Near 
midnight the wedding cake was eaten and 
bevies of young girls sang the bridal song. 
Through it all the bride remained veiled, 
many of the guests, and perhaps the bride- 
groom having never seen her face. 

225 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

THE BOY OF THE AGE 

A BRANCH of olive hung on the outer Hoor 
proclaimed that a boy was born in Hellas. His 
parents rejoiced and prayed their gods to 
make him so strong and heroic that one day 
he would wear a crown of wild olive plucked 
from the sacred grove of Zeus at Olympia. 

If the boy were a Spartan babe he was first 
cradled on a shield to make him a fearless 
warrior; if a child of Athens, he was laid on 
a mantel sacred to Athena, and thereby dedi- 
cated to wisdom and warfare. 

He, too, had a naming festival. It is inter- 
esting to know that the Greeks had no family 
names, a single name serving for an individ- 
ual. But as many persons might bear the name 
chosen for the babe the father's name was ap- 
pended to avoid confusion. 

The little fellow swung to and fro in a 

226 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

hanging cradle while an old slave woman 
sung him lullabies and repeated charms to 
ward off the evil eye. 

For seven years the boy lived in the wom- 
en's quarters and played in the court with the 
other children. He had plenty of playthings : 
pet dogs, ducks, tortoises, and birds, whips, 
tops, balls, hoops, and toy carts. With his 
brothers or other boys he played duckstone, 
catching games, tug-of-war, blind-man's-buff, 
and a game somewhat like marbles, but played 
by pitching nuts into a hole. 

When he was seven years old he was taken 
from his mothers and sisters and given over to 
a male slave, called his pedagogue, who 
watched over him, taught him manners and 
took him to and from school. 

The pedagogue taught him to use his right 
hand for food, and his left hand for bread, to 
keep silence when his elders were present and 

227 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

to rise from his seat when they entereH. The 
well-bred boy of that age did not lounge in 
his chair or sit cross-legged. When he walked 
through the streets he carried himself well 
and kept his eyes modestly fixed on the 
ground, speaking to no one, for his pedagogue 
with a long stick was always trudging behind. 
He carried the boy's books, writing tablets 
and musical instruments and remained at 
school from sunrise to sunset keeping close 
watch over his charge. 

The school was not a public school or a 
boarding-school, for there were no such 
things. It was conducted by a school-master 
who received his pay from the fathers, whose 
boys attended. Some of the schools were ele- 
gantly furnished. With the exception of the 
near relations of the master, older persons 
were forbidden to enter the school during 
school-hours, under pain of death. 

228 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

As children are now-a-days, the Greek boy 
was taught to read and to write. For writing 
he first used a waxed tablet with a raised rim, 
and scratched in the stiffened wax with a 
pointed metal stylus "very much as if one 
wrote on thickly buttered bread with a small 
stiletto." Later he was given expensive pa- 
pyrus (paper) and a split reed to be used as 
pen. When he could read and write well, he 
was taught to recite the sublime poems of 
Homer, to play the lyre beautifully, and to 
read, and know the lyric poets. His physical 
training was secured in the wrestling schools 
and he was taught to dance and to swim. 

At sixteen the pedagogue was dispensed 
with and the youth entered a two years' course 
under different masters, who taught him rhet- 
oric, general culture, feats of strength and 
riding. 

When the boy was eighteen years old his 

229 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

education was complete and he was enrolled 
as a citizen. Wearing the regulation hat and 
mantle the young man of Hellas entered upon 
his military training and served his state for 
two years. 



A DINNER-PARTY OF ATHENS 

THE men of Athens were the most clever and 
brilliant of the Hellenes. Among them were 
the poets, philosophers, artists and statesmen 
who really made the classic Golden Age of 
Hellas. 

They were fond of study, amusement and 
argument. During the day they met in the 
public places to hear and discuss great and 
learned questions, and in the evening they 
usually attended a dinner and symposium 
given at the home of some friend. 

The dinner was given by the man of the 

230 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

house and the invited guests were his chosen 
men friends whom he daily met in the agora, 
colonnades, groves and gymnasia. Often un- 
invited guests were present, but that made little 
difference to the host or to the rest of the com- 
pany. 

During the evening the women, pretty 
maidens and children, were banished to the fe- 
male apartments. It was unfortunate for the 
men of Hellas that the exquisite, refining 
grace, charm, and beauty of lovely ladies were 
totally lacking in their society. Men and 
women rarely met socially. They only feasted 
together at weddings, and even then the beau- 
tiful ladies sat on chairs on the farther side of 
the room while the men reclined comfortably 
on sumptuous couches. 

In the early morning, the host arose, bathed 
his hands and face and dressed for the street. 
A slave served his breakfast, which consisted 

231 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

of a few bits of bread dipped in wine. Then, 
attended by two slaves, he went to the mar- 
ket-place to purchase things for the din- 
ner. How picturesque he looked as he slowly 
walked through the colonnades and under the 
plane-trees! He wore sandals and a neatly 
draped mantle and tunic. His head was bare 
and he carried a walking-stick. 

He went among the stalls and bought costly 
foods for the banquet, and perfumes and chap- 
lets of flowers for the guests. He engaged 
pretty flute-players, graceful dancing-girls, 
jugglers and tumblers to provide entertain- 
ment for the symposium. A special chef was 
employed to go to the home and prepare the 
food. You see, the family servants were not to 
cook those delicious viands. That hired chef 
had been trained in the high arts of cooking 
in Syracuse, a city of Sicily that was famous 
for its luxury and high living. 

232 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

The slaves carried the purchases home and 
the master sought his favorite haunts and 
friends. 

The true Athenian gentleman cared little 
for the mere joys of eating and despised any- 
thing that bordered on excess. He demanded 
a small amount of delicious food served with 
an abundance of entertainment and sparkling 
conversation. A witty writer of the times said 
that a dinner-party of Athens was very pretty 
to look at, but was not made to satisfy hunger. 

The large dining-hall of the home was 
aglow with lights from beautiful lamps placed 
on stands or swung by chains from the ceiling, 
and the air was heavy with perfumes that arose 
from burning braziers. On tables of elegant 
design was a dazzling array of silver goblets 
and bowls of various sizes, while about the 
room were the couches on which the guests 
were to recline. They were set in the form 

233 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

of a square and in the midst were flowers and a 
fountain in which tiny fishes swam and darted 
about. 

Those couches were a marked feature of old 
Greek life. They were made of costly, inlaid 
wood or bronze, with feet of silver or ivory. 
Each couch was intended to accommodate two 
guests and was heaped with a luxurious mat- 
tress and many gay-striped pillows. For the 
party, slaves had spread embroidered tapes- 
tries over the mattresses. 

The guests all walked to the dinner-party, 
for in that age walking was the approved 
mode of travel in Hellas, and seldom did peo- 
ple ride on horseback or in carriages. Each 
guest was attended by one or more slaves, who 
stood behind their masters throughout the 
evening. On arriving, they rattled the lion- 
head knocker and were admitted into the 
court. They found the doors wide open and 

234 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

youthful slaves in their high-girt chitons were 
waiting to usher them to the dining-room. 

There they met the host, who welcomed 
them with smiles and glad words. He bade 
them sit on the couches while the slaves re- 
moved their neatly bound sandals and poured 
perfumed water and wine over their feet into 
silver basins. After their delightful foot baths 
the guests reclined gracefully among the cush- 
ions. 

How; handsome and careless they looked! 
They were fair-haired and blue-eyed, and all 
had a pretty fancy for self-adornment. Their 
hair, beards, and nails were faultlessly 
groomed and every gentleman among them 
wore at least one ring on his finger. Many 
of the gravest philosophers had loaded their 
fingers to the knuckles with costly jewels. All 
wore the typical Greek costume, which con- 
sisted of an under-tunic and an upper robe or 

235 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

mantle, both made of white woolen cloth. 
Some of the younger and more fashionable 
men wore pink, purple, red or black. The 
sleeveless tunic fell to the knees and was 
girdled at the waist with a rich, heavy cord. 
The other robe or mantle was a long piece of 
cloth that was adorned with gold fringe and 
tassels and a border of bright-colored em- 
broidery. It was thrown over the left shoulder 
and draped about the body in such a way that 
it fell in loose, flowing folds, leaving the right 
arm and shoulder bare. 

When the guests were in their places, slaves 
passed around with towels and silver vessels 
of sweet-scented water which they poured over 
the hands of the company. Would it not seem 
strange to have your hands washed at a dinner- 
party, and can you guess why those people did 
so? 

They brought in small, prettily-made tables 

236 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and placed one before each couch for the two 
persons who occupied it, while others fol- 
lowed with the savory dishes of viands which 
were served on the tables. There were oysters 
in the shell, fish, birds and eels, and vegetables 
that were dressed with a queer mixture of 
sauces, vinegar, oils and honey — prepared by 
the hired chef who had been trained in Syra- 
cuse. Bread of the finest quality was served 
in tiny baskets of woven ivory. 

But think of it, children. There were no 
knives, forks or spoons, and no table-cloths or 
napkins. The food was simply taken up in the 
fingers, and pieces of bread hollowed out like 
spoons were used to aid the fingers in eating 
the soft foods and gravies. Some of those 
high-bred gentlemen were very neat and 
dainty in handling the food, and it is interest- 
ing to know that in order to pick up and hold 
piping hot viands, many of the diners had 

237 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

hardened their fingers at home by holding 
them in hot water, and sometimes for the same 
purpose they even wore gloves at a banquet 
Portions of soft bread were used for wiping 
the fingers and were then thrown to the dogs. 
How shocking to think of dogs at a banquet! 
And it is even more shocking to know that the 
guests threw their shells, bones, crumbs and 
peelings on the carpetless floor. 

Amidst lively wit and laughter, the merry 
feast went on. When the host saw that his 
guests would eat no more, he made a sign to the 
slaves, who again handed the towels and 
scented water among the company, while 
others carried out the tables and swept the 
fragments from the floor. 

The guests were then perfumed and 
crowned with chaplets of violets, roses and 
myrtle and the pretty flute-girl entered the 
hall. A slave handed a golden bowl of wine to 

238 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

the host who poured out a libation as he spoke 
the words : ''To good health," and a chant was 
sung to the notes of the flutes. 

That being ended, the slaves brought in the 
tables, and the dessert, which consisted of 
salted almonds, fresh and dried fruits, cheese 
and Attic salt. Then followed what they 
called the symposium. 

Slaves mixed perfumed wine and water in 
a handsome urn and cooled it with mountain 
snow. They filled a goblet for each guest, 
who poured out a libation to great Zeus; 
stories and riddles were told, games were 
played and philosophers talked. The host 
brought in the pretty flute girls who played 
joyous music, dancing girls who danced grace- 
ful dances, and jugglers and tumblers who per- 
formed great feats for his guests. A beautiful 
lyre was passed among them, and each guest 
played and sang some Greek poem. 

239 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

The slaves brought the guests' sandals and 
deftly bound them on, and with merry good- 
bys, all departed for their homes, their slaves 
lighting their masters through the dark streets 
w^ith torches or oil lamps. The host saw that 
the chests and the storerooms were securely 
locked for the night and then repaired to his 
own cell-like bedroom, and soon all the house- 
hold was deep in slumber. 



SOME GREAT ATHENIANS 



STATESMEN AND ORATORS 

WHEN the Persian wars were over beautiful 
Athens was in ashes, her walls all down, and 
her temples in ruins. But the same men who 
could so easily and gloriously destroy a great 
army could just as easily and gloriously build 
up a great city. 

To Themistocles, Cimon and Aristides was 
given the task of rebuilding the city. They 
were the same eloquent statesmen and mighty 
warriors who had snatched lovely Hellas from 
the clutches of the Persians. And now upon 
the ruins left behind by that army, they were 
asked to build a new Athens. To Cimon was 
given the task of renewing the Acropolis with 
its walls and temples, while Themistocles was 
to restore the lower towns and complete and 

243 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

fortify the great harbor of Athens. They laid 
out vast, splendid plans for the city, and their 
eloquence and wisdom secured the almost 
fabulous sums necessary to carry them out. 
For years Athens was busy and happy. Archi- 
tects, artists, sculptors, and artisans of all kinds 
were busy doing the will of the statesmen. 
Themistocles, Cimon and Aristides kept 
peace and safety through it all and established 
a powerful navy. Themistocles decided to 
enlarge the city and build massive walls. But 
Sparta was jealous and tried to hinder the 
building. Then Themistocles visited in 
Sparta and with his eloquence and cunning de- 
ceived the Spartans. While they were enter- 
taining him royally, every man, woman and 
child in Athens worked day and night build- 
ing the walls. So well were the walls built 
that they could not be taken or destroyed until 
four centuries later Rome thundered and 

244 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

stormed at their gates. While Cimon an3 
Themistocles were filling the city with tem- 
ples, colonnades, porticoes and houses, the 
grand old Aristides was steering the affairs of 
state — securing all political rights, enriching 
the treasury and causing Athens to take the 
first place among the cities of Hellas. 

We already know much of Themistocles, 
whose eloquence, cunning and daring really 
saved Hellas from the Persians. But Themis- 
tocles was always crafty and cunning, and at 
last proved to be a bad man and traitor and 
was exiled from his beautiful city. 

Cimon, the son of Miltiades, was rich, hand- 
some and noble. He spent his own money to 
adorn the city, and planted plane-trees in the 
market-place and parks, and built fine places 
of exercise and pleasure. Two miles north of 
the city he made the Academy, a beautiful 
grove with walks, drives, and an open race- 

245 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

course. There it was that Plato and the 
philosophers studied and talked. Best of all, 
Cimon took down the fences from his own 
lovely gardens and orchards and invited the 
public to pluck his fruits and flowers and sit 
by his fountains. Every evening he spread a 
bountiful supper for the poor of the city and 
for strangers. When he went walking he took 
well-dressed young men with him, and if he 
met a poor old man he had him change clothes 
with the young man, and slipped money into 
his hand. Cimon was beloved by all Athens, 
but at last jealous Sparta caused him to be 
exiled. 

Aristides, who fought at Marathon and 
Salamis, was the most renowned and beloved 
man in Athens. He was always poor but was 
proud of his poverty. Wise, gentle, and 
courteous, he influenced all classes of people, 

246 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and so honest and just was he that the Atheni- 
ans lovingly called him Aristides, the Just. 

Cimon and Themistocles were exiled and 
Aristides died mourned by all. Then Pericles 
was the ruling statesman and orator of Athens. 
He was young, handsome, rich and noble. 
Pericles was never elected to ofBce but was 
always a private citizen. Yet for forty years 
he reigned supreme in the city, and so brilliant 
was that time that it is known as the Golden 
Age of Athens or the Age of Pericles. He 
made Athens a democracy in which every 
affair of state was discussed and decided by 
the people. Never before in the world was 
there granted such liberty. Pericles found the 
city made of wood and of stone. Guided by 
Phidias, the artist, he rebuilt it of marble, gold 
and ivory, and left it temple-crowned and 
magnificent. 

247 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

PHIDIAS 

PERICLES loved Athens. He had dreamed 
of art and beauty. The wonderful riches at 
his command inspired him with such hope and 
daring that the statesman whose "eloquence 
thundered and lightened and turned Hellas 
upside down" sought Phidias, the sculptor 
who wrought the songs of poets in marble. 

Before many years had passed, Phidias had 
chiseled Pericles' dream of art and beauty in 
marble, adorned it with gold and ivory and 
glorified it with the songs of the poets. 

The city of Athens was a wide-wayed wil- 
derness of beautiful works, while, magnificent 
and crowned with the Parthenon, the Acropo- 
lis stood in eternal repose, a splendid dedica- 
tion to Athene. 

The Parthenon was the house of the blue- 
eyed goddess, Athene, who was the protecting 

248 




APOLLO 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

diety of Athens. It was designed by Ictinus, 
an architect, and built of white marble taken 
from the quarries of Pentelicus in Attica. The 
Parthenon was surrounded by curved, swelling 
columns and the structure was lighted by open- 
ings in the roof and by the brilliant reflection 
of the marble. Phidias resolved to make the 
temple of Athene glorious with his sculptured 
art. With his chisel and marble he pictured on 
the temple the songs of Athene as sung by the 
poets — the goddess springing full-armed from 
the head of great Zeus, her contest with Posei- 
don for the possession of Athens and other 
legends. There were pictured the battle of the 
gods and Titans, battles of centaurs, and a bat- 
tle of men supposed to be Hellenes and Per- 
sians. About the walls of the immense temple 
was a frieze in which Phidias pictured in re- 
lief a festal procession of Athene, showing the 
opening sacrifice of attending gods, priests, 

249 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

priestesses, maidens, women, men, musicians, 
victors, horses, chariots and the animals to be 
used in sacrifice. That procession was in sculp- 
tured repose, yet it breathed of graceful move- 
ment and life. The house of the blue-eyed 
goddess was a poem chiseled in marble, and 
even to-day, its exquisite ruins are the glory of 
the Acropolis. 

Within the Parthenon was enshrined the 
gold and ivory statue of Athene which was 
called the Athene Parthenos. The statue 
wrought by Phidias was a symbol of all that 
the Athenians held most sacred. The ivory 
goddess wore a Greek robe of beaten gold 
which fell to her feet, which were encased in 
golden sandals whereon was shown in relief 
a battle of centaurs. On her nobly poised 
head was a golden helmet crested with a 
golden sphynx. Her extended right hand held 
a winged statue of victory six feet in height 

250 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

and garlanded with golden leaves. In her left 
hand was her spear for a scepter. The eyes 
of the goddess were great, limpid jewels, and 
on her breast was the head of the Medusa done 
in ivory. The Athene Parthenos stood about 
forty feet high and was placed on a low pedes- 
tal in the house of the blue-eyed goddess, fac- 
ing the East and the sunrise. 

Once Phidias went into exile at Olympia. 
While there, at the request of Hellas, he did 
his greatest work, the Olympian Zeus. The 
statue, made of gold and ivory, was about fifty 
feet high and had all the finish of the smallest 
and rarest gem. Phidias formed his model 
from the lines of Homer which pictured great 
Zeus, as he nodded his massive head and locks, 
making all Olympus tremble. The Olympian 
Zeus sat on a throne made of ebony, gold and 
ivory, and wore on his head a garland of olive 
branches. His flowing robe was made of 

251 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

enameled gold, covered with rare devices of 
animals and flowers. The father of gods held 
a crowned figure of victory in his right hand, 
and in his left hand was his scepter, sur- 
mounted by an eagle. When the statue was 
finished, Phidias prayed Zeus to send him a 
sign from heaven if the work were pleasing. 
Zeus flashed down a lightning which smote the 
black pavement in front of the statue. A 
writer of those days said, "Go to Olympia, that 
you may see the work of Phidias, and let each 
of you consider it a misfortune to die without 
a knowledge of these things." 

SOCRATES 

PERICLES had made Athens an empire that 
was the ruling power of Hellas, mistress of the 
sea and the center of beauty, art and eloquence. 
But Pericles was dead, and war with Sparta 

252 




SOCRATES 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

had destroyed her power and her fleets. With 
her dream of empire broken, Athens settled 
into the calm and quiet that follow the fierce 
heat of glory and found that she was still the 
"beautiful and violet-crowned" center of art 
and eloquence. Turning her energies to 
thought and study, Athens was soon the 
world's queen of intellect. 

The shady groves and public haunts of the 
city remained the seats of learning and retreats 
of philosophers and teachers. The greatest 
philosopher and teacher among them was a 
venerable old man named Socrates who was 
always surrounded by a group of youths and 
men eager to hear every word which fell from 
his lips, for in respect to wisdom, eloquence 
and politeness, Socrates was the first man of 
his age. 

He began his early career as a sculptor and 
wrought a group of Hermes and the Graces 

253 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

which stood behind a statue of Athens on the 
Acropolis. He cared little for working in 
marble, so, impelled by the divine mission to 
teach, he abandoned his art and spent most of 
his time studying and teaching philosophy. 

Socrates went among the youths and men of 
the city questioning and teaching them, asking 
no pay for his labors. Young Alcibiades said 
that he was forced to stop up his ears and flee 
away that he might not sit down by Socrates 
and grow old listening. One night Socrates 
dreamed that he held a young siren in his arms 
and suddenly its wings grew and the siren 
floated away filling the earth and heavens with 
glorious music. The next day Socrates met a 
boy named Plato who became his pupil and 
follower and it is through the writings of 
Plato that we know most of Socrates. In a 
shaded walk of the city he met a handsome 
youth and playfully barring the way with his 

254 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

walking stick, inquired where he could find 
certain things which he wished. The boy 
quickly and politely told him. Then Socrates 
said, "Where can I find a noble character?" 
The youth hesitated and the philosopher took 
him by the hand, saying: "Come, follow me 
and I will show you." The youth was Xeno- 
phone who became his pupil and follower and 
a soldier and scholar who wrote beautiful 
things of Socrates. 

In the conflict between Athens and Sparta, 
Socrates was called upon to take arms and he 
proved himself a brave, hardy soldier. During 
the severest weather, while others were clad 
in furs, he wore only his tunic and mantle and 
walked bare-footed upon the ice. Once during 
that time, he was seen early in the morning 
standing lost in deep thought. He continued 
to stand in that spot until noonday, and a sol- 
dier remarked to another, "Socrates has been 

255 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

standing there thinking ever since the morn- 
ing." At night when the soldiers wrapped 
themselves in their blankets and lay down to 
sleep, they saw that he was still standing in 
that place, as if he were dreaming. When 
morning came and the sun arose, the grand 
old man was seen to salute it with a prayer and 
depart. 

Not as a sculptor and soldier do we love 
and remember Socrates, but as a philosopher 
and a teacher. A philosopher, children, is a 
man who seeks for truth and for the laws that 
govern all things. Directed by a still voice 
that followed him throughout life, Socrates 
searched his own heart and the hearts of his 
fellows for the great moral truths of our being. 
He tried to teach men to think aright and he 
argued with them in such a way as to make 
them take a proper view of good and bad. So- 
crates taught that men can not be happy unless 

256 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

they are good and that they can not be good if 
they are ignorant. Centuries before the Christ, 
with no Bible but his philosophy, that old phi- 
losopher taught that somewhere there is a 
world eternal and good, and that beyond the 
gods of Hellas was a supreme God to whom 
the soul of man belongs. 

The last few years of his life were spent in 
the quiet and calm of Athens which followed 
the heat of her glory. And every day of those 
years was spent in teaching. He gathered 
about him a circle of loving friends called his 
disciples. 

The Delphian oracle declared that Socrates 
was the wisest man living; Socrates said that 
if he were wise, it was because he knew that 
he knew nothing. He was so worried by the 
words of the oracle that he sought the men 
who were reputed to be wise in order to dis- 
prove the statement. He found politicians, 

257 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

poets, and scholars puffed up with vain knowl- 
edge and self-satisfied, and declared that there 
were no wise men among them. 

One morning a sign appeared, written over 
a portico of Athens which read: "Meletus 
accuses Socrates as is underwritten: Socrates 
is guilty of crime — first, for neglecting the 
gods whom the city acknowledges, and setting 
forth other strange gods ; next, for corrupting 
the youth. Penalty, death." 

The accuser of Socrates was a poet whom 
he had angered by his questioning and teach- 
ing. Socrates was taken before a jury of sev- 
eral hundred citizens and charged with those 
grave wrongs. Throughout the trial he was 
grand and heroic, acting as if he cared little 
for life. When he arose to speak for himself, 
Socrates made no defense but a sublime lec- 
ture. He said to the court, "Men of Athens, 
I know and love you; but I shall obey God 

258 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

rather than you and while I have life and 
strength I shall never cease from the teaching 
of philosophy. To you and to God I submit 
my cause, to be determined by you as is best 
for you and for me." The verdict of that court 
was death by drinking a cup of hemlock. 

Thirty days later, in prison and surrounded 
by his weeping disciples, Socrates lifted the 
cup of bitter hemlock to his lips and drank the 
poison. His beautiful soul sought the land that 
is good and eternal and there found the God 
whom Socrates had been seeking. 

THE PASSING OF THE GOLDEN 

AGE 

THE city-states had given a richness and a 
variety of life to Hellas that no other land 
had enjoyed. Through them she had attained 
a golden age of beauty and splendor and for 
one century and a half the Hellenes had rev- 

259 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

eled in the freedom and culture for which 
their land was destined. 

But all those years of marbled heauty and 
intellectual splendor were not golden ones of 
peace. Athens, Sparta and Thebes had quar- 
reled fiercely and there had been civil wars in 
which nearly all the Hellenic states had en- 
gaged. Hellas was tired and exhausted. 

Macedon, the little country to the north that 
was closely allied to Hellas and whose kings 
contested in the great Olympic games, had 
crushed the liberty of Hellas, and made it a 
province of Macedon. 

Philip, King of Macedon, was making a 
supreme effort to unite all the forces of Hellas 
and make war on Persia to avenge those old in- 
vasions of Darius and Xerxes. Despite the loss 
of their independence, the Hellenes were fired 
with enthusiasm at the thought of advancing 
against the Orient. 

260 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

More than a century and a half before, King 
Darius had died in the midst of his prepara- 
tions to advance on Hellas, and Philip, King 
of Macedon, died in the midst of his prepara- 
tions to advance on Persia. Xerxes, the proud 
son of Darius, took up the work of his father 
and led countless armies into Hellas. Alex- 
ander, the proud son of King Philip, took up 
the v^ork of his father and led the Hellenic 
armies into Persia. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT 

ALEXANDER had all the young instincts of 
a hero and conqueror. When but a little child, 
he listened to some courtiers telling of a vic- 
tory gained by King Philip and he exclaimed 
with fine indignation, "Father is leaving noth- 
ing for me to do." 

Achilles was his ancient kinsman and the 

261 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

boy reveled in the glorious deeds of that 
far-away mystic hero and in the stupendous 
labors of Heracles, until he burned with an 
ardor and enthusiasm to be a mighty hero, 
wielding the sword of Achilles and outdoing 
the labors of Heracles. 

Once a fleet, noble steed, Bucephalus, was 
brought to the court of King Philip. None of 
the courtiers could sooth or master the mettle- 
some animal and it was to be sent away for the 
want of a rider. Displaying the same daunt- 
less spirit of his ancient kinsman, Alexander 
grasped the bridle, turned the head of the 
horse toward the sun away from its shadow, 
and leaped quietly and gracefully into the 
saddle, mastering and easily conquering Bu- 
cephalus, to the great joy of the king and the 
assembled court. 

A few years hence, that same boy who had 
mastered Bucephalus and sat supreme and su- 

262 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

perb in the saddle was to master the world and 
sit supreme and superb on the throne of Asia. 

Aristotle, the greatest philosopher of 
Athens, and a master of knowledge, was his 
teacher, and trained him to a clear, vigorous 
understanding of men and government. Alex- 
ander was strong, and regal of body. He 
looked like a handsome Greek athlete; but 
proud and imperious, the boy seemed impelled 
by nature to a love of empire and fame and 
refused to contend in the Olympic games be- 
cause he had not kings for rivals. Wielding 
his sword with strength, grace and swiftness, 
Alexander fought his first battle under his 
father, King Philip, when he crushed the lib- 
erties of Hellas, and established the empire of 
Macedon over the Hellenes. 

And now Alexander, a youth of twenty 
years, who slept with his sword and the poems 
of Homer beneath his pillow, was the king of 

263 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

Macedon and the acknowledged leader of the 
forces of Hellas. 

King Philip was making plans to advance 
the Hellenic armies on Persia when he died, 
leaving his son something to do. The ardent, 
romantic imagination of the young king pic- 
tured a vision of an eastern empire and with 
thousands of Hellenes and Macedonians. He 
crossed the narrow channel of the Hellespont 
with the dazzling prospect of Asiatic conquest 
spread out before him. 

It is said that he lingered a while at the 
burial mounds of Achilles and Patroclus, and 
that when offered the lyre of Paris, he cast it 
aside with scorn, and called for the harp with 
which his mystic kinsman, Achilles had 
soothed his mighty soul as he sat indignant by 
the mournful sea. 

Alexander soon found himself the master 
of Western Asia, the proud empire which had 

264 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

often threatened the civilization of Hellas. 
But the youthful conqueror cared nothing for 
the pomp and luxury of this Eastern court. 
His hot, imperial nature was impelling him 
onward. 

To the East lay the unknown and mysterious 
part of the Orient, reputed to be of wonderful 
wealth. Alexander and his hosts pressed on 
into those regions, subduing princes and build- 
ing cities. He turned to the South to conquer 
the old civilizations of Phoenicia and Egypt, 
and while in Egypt he founded a city which 
he called Alexandria. 

Alexander conceived a magnificent scheme 
of empire that surpassed in grandeur and 
power the most fabulous dream of a poet. He 
would conquer every known part of Asia and 
Europe and unite them in one vast Hellenic 
Empire. He would intermingle the fruits, 
trees and flowers of the East and the West by 

265 



STORIES OF HELLAS 

transplanting them from one country to an- 
other, and make all the world one great fam- 
ily, worshipping the gods and speaking the 
language of Hellas. In his wild dream of con- 
quest, Alexander proposed to establish the seat 
of his empire in the ancient city of Babylon, 
and live in a sumptuous splendor unknown to 
the potentates of the Orient. 

But in the midst of his dreams of glory, 
Alexander died in the ancient city of Babylon. 
When dying, he was asked to whom he be- 
queathed his kingdom, and Alexander the 
Great replied: "To the Strongest." 



THE END 



WORD LIST 



Achilles— A-kil ' leez 

Acropolis — A-krop ' o-lis 

Ad-me ' ta 

Aegean — E-je ' an 

Ag-a-mem ' non 

Ag ' or-a 

Alcibiades — Al-si-by ' a-deez 

Alexander — Al-eg-zan ' der 

Am ' a-zons 

An-drom ' e-da 

Aph-ro-di'te 

A-pol'lo 

Ar-ca'dia 

Archon — Ar ' kon 

Ares — A'reez 

Ar'go 

Ar-i-ad ' ne 

Aristides — Ar-is-ti ' deez 

Aristotle — Ar ' is-tot-1 

Ar'te-mis 

Ar'yan 

A-the'ne 

Ath'ens 

Ath'os 

At'tl-ca 

Au-ro ' ra 

Bacchus — Back ' us 

Bab ' y-lon 

Bucephalus — Bu-sef ' a-lus 



Caucasian — Kaw-kay ' chan 
Cecropia — Se-crow ' pi-a 
Cecrops — Se ' crops 
Centaur — Sen ' tar 
Ceres — Se ' reez 
Chiron — Ki ' ron 
Chiton— Ki' ton 
Corinth— Kor'inth 
Crete — Kreet 
Cyclops — Sy ' clops 
Cyprus — Sy ' prus 
Cyrene — Sy-re ' ne 

Dan ' a-e 

Da-ri ' us 

De'los 

Delphi— Del' fi 

Delphian — Del ' fi-an 

De-me'ter 

Deucalion — Du-ka ' le-on 

Dionysus — Di-o-ni ' sus 

Do-do 'na 

Endymion — En-dim ' e-on 

E'os 

Epictetus — Ep-ik-te ' tus 

Epimetheus — Ep-i-me ' thus 

E-pi'rus 

E'ros 

Ethiopians — E-the-o ' plans 



WORD LIST 



Euripides — U-rip ' i-deez 

Ganymede — Gan ' y-meed 
Gorgons — (Both G's are hard) 
Gymnasia — ^Jim-nay ' se-a 



Lab ' y-rinth 
Latona — Lay-toe ' na 
Leto — Lee ' to 
Lycurgus — Ly-kur ' gus 





Macedon — Mas ' e-don 


Hades—Hay ' deez 


Macedonians — Mas-e-doe ' ni-ans 


Hebe 


Mar'a-thon 


Hec'a-tomb 


Medusa — Me-dew ' sa 


Hec'tor 


Mercury — Mer ' ku-ry 


Hec'u-ba 


Miletus — My-leet ' us 


Helicon — Hel ' i-kon 


Miltiades — Mil-ti ' a-deez 


He'li-os 


Mi'nos 


Her las 


Minotaur — Min ' o-tar 


Hellenes — Hel ' leens 


Mount Aetna — Mount Et'na 


Hel ' les-pont 


Mount O-lym'pus 


Hephaestus — He-fes ' tus 




He'ra 


Ne ' me-an 


Heracles — Hair ' a-kleez 


Nereus — Ne'nis 


Hermes — Her ' meez 




He-rod ' o-tus 


Odysseus — O-dis ' sus 


Hes-pe ' ri-an 


Odyssey — Od ' is-y 


Hes-per ' i-des 


O-lym ' pi-a 


Hes'ti-a 


0-l>Tn' pi-ad 


Ho-mer'ic 


O-lym ' pic 


Hy'dra 


Oth'rys (ris) 


Hy-per-bo're-ans 






Pan-do ' ra 


Ic-ti'nus 


Par ' the-non 


n'i-ad 


Pa-tro ' clus 


I'ris 


Peg'a-sus 


Ith'a-ca 


Pelasgia — Pe-las ' ji-a 



Juno — Jew ' no 
Jupiter — Jew ' pi-ter 



Pelasgians — Pe-las ' jians 
Peleus — Pe ' lus 

Peloponnesus — Pel-o-po-ne ' sus 
Pe-ne ' us 



WORD LIST 



Pen-tel ' i-cus 




Spar'ta 


Pericles — Per ' i-kleez 




Styx— Stix 


Persephone — Per-sef o 


-ne 


Symposia — Sim-po ' si-a 


Perseus — Per ' sus 




Symposiimi — Sira-po ' si-um 


Phidias — Fid ' i-as 






Phidippides — Fi-dip ' pi 


-deez 


Ta-ren'tum 


Phoenicia — Fe-nish ' a . 




Tar ' ta-rus 


Platea — Plaw-te ' a 




Tem ' pe 


Plato— Play 'toe 




Telemachus — Te-lem ' a-kus 


Plutarch — Ploo ' tark 




Thebes— Thebz 


Pluto— Ploo ' toe 




The-mis ' to-cles 


Poseidon — Po-si ' don 




Ther-mop ' y-lae 


Priam — Pry ' am 




Theseus — The ' sus 


Prometheus — Pro-me ' 1 


thus 


Thes ' sa-ly 


Pyrrha— Pir'ah 




The 'tis 


Py'thon 




Ti'tans 
Tri'ton 


Rhea— Re 'a 




Tro'jan 


Sal ' a-mis 




Ve ' nus 


Sar ' dis 




Ves'ta 


Scythia— Sith'i-a 




Vul'can 


Sicily — Sis ' i-ly 






Smyrna — Smir ' na 




Xenophon — Zen ' o-f on 


Soc ' ra-tes 




Xerxes — Zerks ' eez 


So 'Ion 







OCT 2« 19tf 



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One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
OCT 26 ^^11 



